GEORGE    ROGERS    CLARK 

From  a  copy  by   Edivardi  of  yarvis's  portrait ;   the  copy  being  in  possession 
of  the  JVisconsin   Historical  Society 


How  George  Rogers  Clark 

Won  the  Northwest- 
Ana  O^jJ.^- 

Other  Essays  in  Western  History 

By 
Reuben  Gold  Thwaites 

Author  of  "Down  Historic  Waterways,"  *<  On  the  Storied 

Ohio,"    "Daniel    Boone,"    etc.;    Editor    of   "The 

Jesuit  Relations,"  "Hennepin's  Travels,"  etc. 


Chicago 
A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 
1903    - 


Copyright 
By  a.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 

A.D.     1903 

Published  October  3,  1903 


UNIVERSITY    PRESS     •      JOHN  WILSON 
AND    SON      •      CAMBRIDGE,     U.S.A. 


TO 

MY   COLLEAGUES   AND   FRIENDS 

THE   STAFF   OF  THE 
WISCONSIN   HISTORICAL   LIBRARY 


Preface 


THE  majority  of  the  eight  papers  contained 
in  this  volume  were  first  delivered  as 
lectures;  and  later,  in  a  modified  form,  were 
printed  either  in  popular  magazines  or  in  the 
Wisconsin  Historical  Collections.  For  the 
present  publication  they  have  been  radically 
revised  and  brought  down  to  date  —  indeed, 
some  of  them,  especially  the  opening  article, 
have  been  entirely  rewritten  and  bear  small 
resemblance  to  the  originals.  Owing  to  the 
different  occasions  for  which  they  were  pre- 
pared, there  is  lacking  a  uniformity  of  treat- 
ment; it  is  hoped,  however,  that  this  variety 
of  form,  as  well  as  the  somewhat  wide  range 
of  topics,  may  be  found  acceptable. 

There  is  more  cohesion  in  this  collection 
than  may  at  first  appear.  The  stories  of 
Mackinac  and  La  Pointe  and  the  account  of 
Early  Lead  Mining  give  us  glimpses  of  the 
old  French  regi-me,  the  idyllic  period  in  the 
history  of  what  we  now  know  as  the  Middle 


viii  Preface 

West.  Upon  Braddock's  Road,  we  witness  an 
incident  in  the  march  of  the  British  in  their 
fateful  onslaught  upon  French  possessions  in 
the  continental  interior.  In  their  turn  the 
British  army  were  ousted  by  American  col- 
onists through  the  Winning  of  the  Northwest 
by  George  Rogers  Clark.  The  Division  of 
the  Northwest  into  States  of  the  Republic 
followed  in  due  course,  the  story  of  their  re- 
spective boundaries  being  a  curious  chapter  in 
our  history.  The  Black  Hawk  War  was  the 
last  serious  Indian  uprising  in  the  Middle 
West;  and  its  close  marked  the  beginning  of 
extensive  immigration  into  both  Illinois  and 
Wisconsin.  Some  account  of  that  gentle 
scholar,  Lyman  Copeland  Draper,  and  the 
now  famous  Draper  Manuscripts  —  the  richest 
collection  extant  of  original  sources  for  the 
study  of  Western  history  —  would  seem  fitting 
conclusion  for  a  series  like  the  present. 

R.  G.  Thwaites. 
Madison,  Wis.,  September  i,  1903. 


Contents 


I 

How  George  Rogers  Clark  won  the  North- 
west Page 

A  vast  hunting-ground 3 

The  king's  pleasure  ignored 5 

The  inrush  of  settlers 6 

Lord  Dunmore's  War 6 

Kentucky  settled 7 

Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton 8 

"The  hair-buying  general" 9- 

Kentucky  raided .10 

George  Rogers  Clark 10 

French  hamlets 12 

Frontier  forts 13 

Creole  militiamen 14 

Life  among  the  Creoles 14 

Centres  of  British  influence 17 

Clark's  project 18 

Raising  volunteers 19 

The  backw®odsmen 20 

The  flotilla 22 

At  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio 23 

Desertion 24 

A  picked  company 24 


X  Contents 

How  George  Rogers  Clark  won  thb  North- 
west {continued)  Page 

-The  march  to  Kaskaskia 25 

^'A  picturesque  Hero  Tale 28 

'-The  capture  of  Kaskaskia 30 

"  An  excess  of  joy  " 32 

«#^ather  Gibault 33 

-^ahokia 34 

A  new  difficulty 35 

Drilling  recruits 36 

*'  Our  friends  the  Spanyards  " 37 

The  tribesmen  confused 38 

Savage  friends   . 39 

Hamilton's  war-party 40 

Vincennes  taken  by  Hamilton 40 

A  scare  at  Kaskaskia 42 

.«P»  Clark  uneasy 44 

Vigo's  information 45 

Forestalling  the  enemy 46 

"  Inward  assurance  of  success  " 47 

A  difficult  march 48 

The  "  drowned  lands  " 48 

Fatigue  and  hunger 49 

Wallowing  through  the  bog 50 

"  Hard  fortune !  " 51 

The  man  of  iron 52 

A  frightful  crossing 53 

Hamilton  still  unconscious 54 

Clark's  letter  to  the  villagers 54 

A  ruse .  56 

The  attack  on  Vincennes 57 

Clark's  warning 59 

Terrorizing  the  enemy 59 


Contents  xi 

How  George  Rogers  Clark  won  the  North- 
west {continued)  Page 

Clark  demands  unconditional  surrender      .     .  60 

The  surrender 61 

An  heroic  achievement 62 

Illinois  a  Virginian  county    .....'..  64 

Belated  reinforcements 64 

Results  achieved dl 

The  Detroit  project 66 

..riat-v^c  power  wanes (>^ 

Jefferson's  interesting  proposition       ....  67 

Clark  and  Genet 69 

^^^  Clark's  later  years 70 

Importance  of  the  conquest 71 

Effect  on  the  treaty  of  peace 71 


II 

The  Division  of  the  Northwest  into  States 

Washington's  suggestion 75 

Jefferson's  plan 77 

Ordinance  of  1787 79 

The  famous  boundary  article 80 

Erection  of  Indiana  Territory 82 

Admission  of  Ohio 84 

Erection  of  Michigan  Territory 86 

Michigan-Ohio  boundary 89 

Erection  of  Illinois  Territory 93 

No  Man's  Land 94 

Illinois's  northern  boundary 95 

Michigan  spreads  westward 96 

Dissatisfaction  west  of  Lake  Michigan      .     .  97 

Protracted  agitation 99 


xii  Contents 

The  Division  of  the  Northwest  into  States 

{continued)  Page 

Erection  of  Wisconsin  Territory      ....  102 

Wisconsin's  southern  boundary 105 

Iowa  detached  from  Wisconsin 108 

Wisconsin's  northwest  boundary      .     .     .     .  108 

An  international  dispute no 


III 

The  Black  Hawk  War 

Partisan  misrepresentations 115 

Treaty  of  1804 116 

The  old  Sauk  village 118 

Black  Hawk 119 

Aids  Tecumseh 122 

Bitterness  against  Americans 123 

Encroachment  of  squatters 123 

Black  Hawk  stubborn J25 

White  Cloud,  the  Prophet 127 

The  whites  threatened 129 

The  Hawk  coerced 130 

The  Menominee  massacre 131 

Bad  advice 132 

British  Band  recruited 134 

Early  trails 134 

Frontier  settlements 136 

Character  of  settlers 137 

Ready  for  an  Indian  war 138 

Illinois  invaded 139 

Shaubena's  services 140 

Troops  called  out 141 

Stockade  forts 142 


Contents  xiii 

The  Black  Hawk  War  {continued')  Page 

Atkinson  organizes  the  army 143 

Volunteers  mobilized 144 

The  army  sets  out 145 

Stillman's  scouts 147 

Tribesmen  in  council 148 

Stillman's  defeat 151 

The  Hawk  at  Koshkonong 153 

A  reign  of  terror 154 

The  army  disbanded 156 

A  fresh  levy 158 

Irregular  hostilities 159 

Notable  skirmishes 160 

The  lead-mine  district 162 

Dodge's  Rough  Riders 164 

The  new  army 165 

The  advance  to  Koshkonong 165 

Fruitless  scouting 167 

Black  Hawk's  camp 169 

lUinois  men  discouraged 170 

At  Fort  Winnebago 171 

Mutinous  conduct 173 

A  hot  trail 174 

The  pursuit 175 

At  Madison 177 

Battle  of  Wisconsin  Heights  ......  179 

An  unsuccessful  appeal 181 

Preparing  for  the  pursuit 183 

A  forbidding  path 185 

The  Mississippi,  at  last 186 

The  battle  of  the  Bad  Axe 187 

A  dishonorable  chapter 192 

The  cost 193 


xiv  Contents 

The  Black  Hawk  War  {continued)  page 

Black  Hawk  a  prisoner 193 

Death  of  the  Hawk 195 

His  character 196 

What  was  accomplished     , 198 


IV  / 

The  Story  of  Mackinac 

A  struggle  for  mastery 203 

Three  Mackinacs 204 

Champlain  hears  of  Lake  Superior  ....  205 

Jean  Nicolet 206 

The  earliest  French 207 

Flight  of  the  Hurons 208 

At  Chequamegon  Bay 209 

Hurons  return  to  Mackinac 210 

Removal  to  St.  Ignace 211 

JoUiet  and  Marquette 212 

Marquette's  Journal 213 

A  French  outpost 214 

Establishment  of  Detroit 216 

"  Old  Mackinaw " 217 

The  English 218 

The  island  reoccupied 219 

Arrival  of  Americans •     .,  220 

English  capture  the  island 221 

Americans  regain  their  footing 223 

Centre  of  the  fur-trade 224 

The  Creoles 226 

Modern  life 227 


Contents  xv 


V  ^ 

The  Story  of  La  Pointe  Page 

Jean  Nicolet .231 

Topographical  significance  of  Wisconsin  .     .  232 

Radisson  and  Groseilliers  on  the  Fox  .     .     .  234 

At  Chequamegon  Bay 235 

First  habitation  of  white  men 238 

A  gloomy  winter 239 

Ingratitude 241 

Father  Menard 242 

Father  Allouez 243 

Father  Marquette 245 

Lords  of  the  fur-trade 247 

The  Indian  and  the  trader 250 

Fur-trade  stockades 252 

A  copper  nugget 254 

The  first  bark 254 

Allies  of  the  French 256 

A  tragic  tale 257 

Alexander  Henry 258 

John  Johnston 259 

The  Cadottes 260 

The  Warrens 263 

First  Protestant  missionaries 265 

A  denominational  controversy 267 

An  early  Western  book 269 

Father  Baraga 270 

Changes  in  location 273 


xvi  Contents 


VI 


A  Day  on  Braddock's  Road  Page 

Brownsville 277 

Redstone  Old  Fort 278 

Nemacolin's  Path 279 

Redstone  Creek 280 

The  National  Road 281 

A  coaching  tavern 284 

Where  Braddock  fell 284 

Great  Meadows 286 

The  first  shot 288 

Siege  of  Fort  Necessity 288 

Remains  of  the  fort 290 

Jumonville's  Camp 293 

Dunbar's  Camp 294 

The  meaning  of  it 295 


VII 


Early  Lead  Mining  on  the  Upper  Mississippi 

Aboriginal  use  of  lead 299 

Taught  by  whites 300 

Early  traffic  in  ore 300 

Perrot's  mines 302 

Le  Sueur's  operations 303 

Crozat's  monopoly 305 

De  Renault's  discoveries 306 

Primitive  methods 308 

France  and  Spain 309 

A  considerable  industry 310 


Co7itents  xvii 

Early  Lead  Mining  on  the  Upper  Mississippi 

{continued)  Page 

Duralde's  grant 311 

A  notable  market 312 

Dubuque's  mines 313 

Aboriginal  smelting 315 

Aboriginal  mining 317 

Dubuque's  Indian  prospectors 318 

"The  Mines  of  Spain" 319 

Dubuque's  statement 320 

Opening  of  American  regime  ......  320 

A  shot  tower 322 

The  Buck  lead 322 

French-Canadians  ousted 324 

Lead  a  currency 324 

A  general  movement 326 

An  enormous  nugget 327 

The  lease  system 328 

A  horde  of  squatters 329 

The  great  *'  boom  " 330 

Spanish  claimants  ejected 331 

VIII 

The  Draper  Manuscripts 

The  collector 335 

A  youthful  passion 336 

A  patron  of  learning 338 

At  college 33^ 

Doctors  disagree 339 

Notable  correspondents 340 

An  itinerant  interviewer 341 

Pioneer  hospitality 341 


xviii  Contents 

The  Draper  Manuscripts  {continued)  Page 

Important  interviews 342 

A  rich  harvest 344 

A  Mississippi  episode 347 

In  a  haven  of  refuge 348 

Alone  in  his  specialty 349 

Co-partnership  with  Lossing 350 

Fearing  to  "  go  to  press  " 351 

Practically  founds  the  Wisconsin  Historical 

Society 352 

King's  Mountain 354 

Material  beyond  his  control 355 

The  end 356 

The  man  himself 356 

An  eminently  useful  career 357 

An  enduring  monument 358 


INDEX ,.361 


List  of  Illustrations 


FULL   PAGE 

Page 
George  Rogers  Clark Frontispiece 

A  Kentucky  Fort 14 

Clark's  Route 26 

Clark's  Letter  to  Hamilton 60 

Black  Hawk 120 

Fort  Winnebago  in  1834 172 

Scene  of  the  Battle  of  the  Bad  Axe    ....  186 

Lahontan's  Map  of  Mackinac  Strait,  1741      .     .  214 

Village  of  La  Pointe,  Madelaine  Island    .     .     .  262 


TEXT 

Division  of  the  Northwest,  1 77 

79 


IL 

in. 

IV. 
V. 
VI. 
VIL 


83 
87 
88 
92 
94 


XX  List  of  Illustrations 

Page 

Division  of  the  Northwest,  VIII 98 

„            „              „           IX.    .     .     .    ^.     .     .  100 

»»            »»              »>          X 103 

»    '        »               »          XI 109 

Seat  of  Black  Hawk  War 117 

Chequamegon  Bay 237 

Plan  of  Battle  at  Fort  Necessity 287 


I 


HOW  GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  WON  THE 
NORTHWEST 


ESSAYS 


IN 


WESTERN   HISTORY 


HOW  GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  WON  THE 
NORTHWEST 

UPON  the  eve  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
the  vast  stretch  of  country  northwest 
of  the  river  Ohio  —  later  divided  into  the 
States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and 
A  vast  Wisconsin  —  was  a  part  of  the  British 
hunting-  Province  of  Quebec.  As  a  result  of 
grottn  Wolfe's  victory  on  the  Plains  of  Abra- 

ham, Great  Britain  had  acquired  it  from  France 
by  the  treaty  of  1763.  Like  the  French,  the 
British  ministry  designed  keeping  the  region 
as  an  enormous  hunting-ground  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Indians  and  the  fur-traders.  In  adopt- 
ing this  policy,  the  government  were  influenced 
by  three  considerations :  first,  the  enormous 
profits  reaped  by  English  merchants  from  the 


4  Essays  in  Western  History 

commerce  of  the  forest;  again,  the  apprehen- 
sion that  should  colonial  settlement  spread 
beyond  the  Alleghanies,  these  merchants  could 
not  supply  the  people  as  easily  as  before,  and 
colonial  trade  would  be  correspondingly  ham- 
pered ;  third,  the  fear  that  if  allowed  to  intrench 
themselves  behind  the  mountain  wall,  American 
borderers  might  become  bolder  and  more  im- 
pudent than  ever.  Selfish  and  short-sighted, 
they  endeavored  arbitrarily  to  hem  in  their 
colonists  to  the  Atlantic  Slope,  thus  adding  a 
fresh  cause  for  colonial  uneasiness,  already 
assuming  ominous  proportions. 

A  proclamation  issued  (October  7,  1763)  in 
the  name  of  King  George  III.,  declared  ^  "  it  to 
be  our  royal  will  and  pleasure  ...  to  reserve 
under  our  sovereignty,  protection,  and  do- 
minion, for  the  use  of  the  said  Indians,  ...  all 
the  lands  and  territories  lying  to  the  westward 
of  the  sources  of  the  rivers  which  fall  into  the 
sea  from  the  West  and  North  West.  .  .  .  And 
we  do  hereby  strictly  forbid,  on  pain  of  our 
displeasure,  all  our  loving  subjects  from  making 
any  purchases  or  settlements  whatever,  or  tak- 
ing possession  of  any  of  the  lands  above  re- 
served, without  our  especial  leave  and  license." 

1  Full  text  in  Gentleman's  Magazine,  xxxiii.,  pp.  477-479; 
reprinted  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections ,  xi.,  pp.  46-52. 


George  Rogers  Clark  5 

But  King  George's  proclamation  could  no 
more  keep  American  frontiersmen  from,  cross- 
ing the  Alleghanies  and  taking  possession  of 
the  fertile  valleys  and  plains  drained  by  the 
west-flowing  waters,  than  Mrs.  Partington  with 
her  broom  could  sweep  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
from  her  door-sill.  Despite  this  attempt  to 
obstruct  the  tide  of  Western  settlement,  the 
Northwest  came  soon  to  be  conquered  and 
held  by  Americans,  until  the  happy  result  of 
the  Revolution  made  it  the  national  domain 
of  the  young  Republic. 

Apparently,  the  royal  proclamation  was  as 
completely  ignored  by  the  colonists  and  offi- 
The  kins' s  ^^'^^^  ^^  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania, 
pleasure  as  though  ucvcr  penned.  Under  the 
tgnore  yague  tcrms  of  their  charters,  both 
these  colonies  claimed  the  country  north  of 
the  Ohio.  Virginia  held  the  advantage,  for 
Fort  Pitt,  at  the  "  Forks  of  the  Ohio,"  —  our 
modern  Pittsburg,  —  was  governed  by  her 
militia,  and  Pennsylvania  protested  in  vain. 
By  this  time,  settlers  were  flocking  into  the 
Alleghany  and  Monongahela  valleys,  divided 
in  loyalty  according  to  the  district  whence 
they  came;  but  the  majority  of  them,  espe- 
cially upon  the  Monongahela,  were  of  Vir- 
ginia origin. 


6  Essays  in  Western  History 

After  a  few  years  of  comparative  peace  upon 
the  border,  the  Indians  were  becoming  alarmed 
at  these  formidable  inroads  on  their  hunting- 
The  inrush  grounds.  The  settlers  were  cutting 
of  settlers  jowu  the  forcsts,  destroying  the  game, 
opening  up  farms,  and  giving  every  evidence 
of  an  intention  to  monopolize  the  country. 
Streams  of  borderers  were  also  pouring  into 
Kentucky  overland,  by  way  of  Boone's  road 
through  Cumberland  Gap ;  or  down  the  Ohio 
in  all  manner  of  curious  craft,  laden  with  their 
families,  flocks,  tools,  and  weapons,  ready  to 
take  armed  possession  of  that  bountiful  land. 
The  white  army  of  Western  occupation  was 
not  over-nice  in  its  methods  of  overriding 
whatever  lay  in  its  path.  Aside  from  the  loss 
of  soil,  the  tribesmen  had  much  to  suffer  at  the 
hands  of  the  borderers.  Small  wonder,  then, 
that  in  1774  they  combined  to  contest  this 
wholesale  invasion,  and  after  the  manner  of 
their  kind  harried  the  entire  length  of  the 
border  from  Lake  Erie  to  Cumberland  Gap, 
with  fire,  rapine,  and  human  slaughter. 

Lord  Dunmore,  Governor  of  Virginia,  led  an 
army  against  them.  As  usual,  the  Indians 
Lord  Dun-  '^^^^  defeated;  although  their  leader, 
more's  Comstalk,  a  Shawnee  chief,  in  whom 
there   was   much   to   admire,    fought 


war 


George  Rogers  Clark  7 

with  rare  valor  in  the  decisive  battle  of  Point 
Pleasant,  at  the  junction  of  the  Great  Kanawha 
and  the  Ohio.  In  this  campaign,  called  in 
history  Lord  Dunmore's  War,  were  engaged 
George  Rogers  Clark  and  many  other  Vir- 
ginia frontiersmen  who  either  were,  or  were 
soon  destined  to  become,  famous  among  the 
Western  pioneers. 

Peace  was  soon  after  declared  in  a  great 
council  on  the  Pickaway  Plains  in  Ohio, 
wherein  the  Northern  Indians  surrendered  to 
the  whites  what  slender  interests  they  held  in 
the  neutral  hunting-grounds  of  Kentucky. 
This  concession,  empty  though  it  was,  com- 
bined with  the  discreet  neutrality  observed  by 
the  vanquished  tribes  during  the  first  two  years 
of  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  rendered  possible 
the  settlement  of  Kentucky ;  thus  forging  the 
first  link  in  the  chain  of  events  on  which  the 
colonists  based  their  claim  to  the  country 
beyond  the  Alleghanies. 

Although  the  Revolution,  which  soon  fol- 
lowed Dunmore's  War,  hampered  progress  upon 
Kentucky  the  Atlantic  Slope,  trans-Alleghany 
settled  development  progressed  apace.  For 
a  time  practically  unhindered  by  the  savages, 
settlers  in  goodly  number  came  straggling 
into  the  Western   country.     Numerous   small 


8  Essays  in  Western  History 

communities  sprang  up  along  the  Ohio  and 
many  of  its  feeders,  and  in  Kentucky  there 
soon  were  several  log  forts,  around  each  of 
which  were  grouped  the  rude  cabins  of  fron- 
tiersmen, who  were  half  farmers,  half  hunters, 
—  tall,  stalwart  fellows,  as  courageous  as  lions, 
and  ever  on  the  watch  for  the  crouching  Indian 
foe,  who,  although  now  absent,  might  appear 
when  least  expected. 

This  quasi-peace  on  the  Western  border  — 
it  was  well  towards  the  close  of  the  century 
Lieutenant-  before  there  was  secured  absolute 
Governor  freedom  from  Indian  forays  —  was 
soon  broken.  Naturally,  the  sympa- 
thies of  the  Indians  were  stronger  for  the 
British  fur-traders  than  for  the  Americans, 
who  were  turning  the  hunting-grounds  into 
farms,  and  took  small  pains  to  ingratiate  them- 
selves with  the  aborigines.  The  British  post 
of  Detroit  was  commanded  by  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Henry  Hamilton  —  a  bold,  brave,  untir- 
ing man,  but  unscrupulous.  During  the  winter 
of  I'j'jG-y/,  acting  under  orders  from  his  supe- 
riors, he  gathered  there  the  Northwest  Indians 
in  large  numbers.  Among  his  strange  guests 
were  long-haired  Sioux  from  Northwest  Wis- 
consin and  the  Minnesota  plains;  sharp-faced 
Chippewas,  from  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Supe- 


George  Rogers  Clark  9 

rior;  sleek  and  oily  Sauks  and  Foxes  from  the 
Mississippi,  below  Prairie  du  Chien;  broad- 
visaged,  flat-nosed,  swarthy  Winnebagoes  from 
the  Rock  River,  the  Wisconsin,  and  the  Green 
Bay  country ;  Potawatomis,  with  open  counte- 
nance and  feminine  cast  of  features,  from  Mil- 
waukee River  and  all  along  the  west  shore  of 
Lake  Michigan ;  and  Menominees  or  wild-rice 
eaters,  from  west  of  Green  Bay  and  around 
Lake  Shawano. 

With  the  various  bands,  repugnant  in  their 
filth,  squalor,  and  savagery,  this  cultured  Eng- 
'' The  hair-  ^ishman  held  council  after  council, 
buying  himself  joining  in  their  wild  songs  and 
genera  danccs ;  and,  amid  yelps  of  applause, 
with  skilful  throw  planting  the  hatchet  in  the 
war-post,  which  was  smeared  with  blood  and 
hung  with  the  scalps  of  American  borderers. 
It  is  not  certain  to  what  extent  Hamilton  de- 
served the  opprobrious  epithet,  "  the  hair-buy- 
ing general,"  which  the  backwoodsmen  fastened 
upon  him ;  but  we  know  that  in  the  warfare 
which  he  induced  the  savages  to  undertake 
against  the  Americans,  those  warriors  who,  as 
evidence  of  their  prowess,  brought  most  scalps 
to  Detroit,  received  the  largest  rewards.  Ham- 
ilton always  claimed  that  he  made  endeavors  to 
curb  the  ferocity  of  his  savage  allies,  but  he 


lO         Essays  in  Western  History 

must  have  known  how  impossible  was  this  feat. 
In  judging  him,  however,  we  must  remember 
that  the  ethics  of  warfare  were  not  in  that  day 
as  humane  as  in  ours. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1777,  Hamilton's 
Indians  began  crossing  the  Ohio  to  raid  the 
Kentucky  Kentucky  settlements.  Militiamen 
raided  were  ambbshed,  several  of  the  block- 
house forts  were  burned,  prisoners  were  sub- 
mitted to  nameless  horrors;  it  seemed  as  if 
pandemonium  had  suddenly  broken  loose  upon 
the  border.  In  the  numerous  sieges  which  en- 
sued, there  were  performed  feats  of  individual 
prowess  on  the  part  of  the  backwoodsmen  and 
their  wives,  that  are  unsurpassed  in  the  records 
of  heroism.  By  the  close  of  the  year,  so  gen- 
eral had  been  the  rush  of  settlers  back  to  their 
old  homes  east  of  the  mountains,  but  five  or  six 
hundred  remained  in  all  Kentucky.  These 
were  liable,  on  call,  to  garrison  duty  in  the  four 
remaining  stations  of  Boonesborough,  Harrods- 
burg,  Price's,  and  Logan's. 

Prominent  among  the  defenders  of  Kentucky 
during  this  fateful  year,  was  George  Rogers 
George  Clark.  He  had  come  from  a  good 
Rogers  family  in  Virginia,  was  but  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  and,  for  his  day,  had 
acquired  a  fair  education,  but  from  childhood 


George  Rogers  Clark  1 1 

had  been  a  rover  of  the  woods.  Full  six  feet 
in  height,  stout  of  frame,  possessed  of  "  red 
hair,  and  a  black,  penetrating,  sparkling  eye," 
he  was  courageous  even  to  audacity,  and  ex- 
hibited strong,  often  unbridled  passions.  Clark 
early  became  a  backwoods  surveyor,  such  as 
Washington  was,  and  many  another  young 
colonial  gent^eman  of  superior  antecedents  and 
training.  With  chain  and  compass,  axe  and 
rifle,  he  had  in  the  employ  of  land  speculators 
wandered  far  and  wide  through  the  border 
region,  learning  its  trails,  its  fords,  its  mountain 
passes,  and  its  aborigines,  better  than  his 
books.  In  many  ways  Clark  was  a  marked 
character  in  a  community  of  strongly  accent- 
uated types  —  heroes  and  desperadoes,  saints 
and  sinners.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  had 
served  in  the  Dunmore  War,  and  then  settled 
as  a  Kentucky  farmer  at  the  mouth  of  Fish 
Creek,  only  again  to  be  called  out  by  an  Indian 
uprising  and  obliged  thereafter  to  take  a  lead- 
ing part  in  the  protracted  defence  of  the  "  Dark 
and  Bloody  Ground."  Almost  from  the  first, 
Clark  ranked  with  Boone,  Benjamin  Logan,  and 
others  of  his  associates  whose  names  are  promi- 
nent in  the  bead-roll  of  American  border 
heroes;  he  was  soon  to  surpass  them  all. 
When   France   surrendered    her    American 


1 2         Essays  in  Western  History 

possessions  to  England,  the  French  Creoles 
for  the  most  part  remained  in  their  .old  haunts, 
French  and  simply  transferred  their  politi- 
hamicts  ^^  allegiance  to  King  George.  In 
the  year  i  "jj^j,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  there 
were  several  little  French  hamlets  in  the  country 
to  the  north  of  the  Ohio  River,  the  outgrowth 
ejther  of  early  Jesuit  missions  or  the  needs  of 
the  fur-trade,  or  of  both  combined.  Detroit, 
commanding  the  straits  between  Lakes  Erie 
and  Huron,  was  the  largest  of  these.  The  im- 
portant post  of  Mackinac  guarded  the  gateway 
between  Lakes  Huron,  Michigan,  and  Supe- 
rior. Vincennes,  on  the  Wabash,  was  another 
strategic  point  occupied  by  the  French  Cana- 
dians. Over  on  the  Mississippi,  Kaskaskia 
and  Cahokia  were  centres  of  French  commerce 
in  the  West.  At  Green  Bay  were  a  few  fur- 
traders*  cabins,  chief  among  them  the  estab- 
lishment of  Charles  Langlade,  first  permanent 
settler  of  Wisconsin.  At  Prairie  du  Chien 
there  was  as  yet  no  village,  although  several 
traders  frequently  made  their  headquarters 
there.  In  the  records  of  the  time,  we  have 
hints  of  trading  stations  near  Ashland,  on 
Lakes  Chetek,  Flambeau,  Courte  Oreille,  and 
on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Wisconsin  forest,  at 
Milwaukee  Bay  and  the  port  of  Two  Rivers. 


George  Rogers  Clark  13 

At  Detroit,  Mackinac,  Vincennes,  Kaskaskia, 
and  Cahokia,  were  small  forts  built  of  logs. 
Frontier  These  structurcs  had  originally  been 
forts  erected  by  the  French  fur-traders  to 

protect  their  stocks  of  goods,  and  in  times  of 
danger  served  as  rallying-points.  When  the 
English  took  possession  they  were  consider- 
ably strengthened,  and  under  this  remodelling 
some  of  them  came  to  be  formidable  fastnesses 
in  a  wilderness  where  besiegers  were  chiefly 
savages,  without  artillery.  As  a  rule,  the  cur- 
tains were  guarded  at  the  four  corners  by 
solidly  built  blockhouses,  serving  as  bastions, 
these  houses  being  generally  two  stories  in 
height  and  pierced  for  rifles  and  cannon.  One 
or  more  of  the  curtains  were  formed  by  the 
rear  walls  of  a  row  of  log-cabins,  the  others 
being  composed  of  palisades,  great  logs  stand- 
ing on  end,  the  bottoms  well  buried  in  the 
ground  and  the  tops  sharp-pointed ;  around 
the  inner  edge  of  these  wooden  ramparts,  the 
roofs  of  the  cabins  formed  a  gallery,  on  which 
crouched  those  of  the  defenders  who  were  not 
already  engaged  in  the  blockhouses.  The 
heavy-timbered  gate,  with  its  massive  forged 
hinges  and  bolts,  was  guarded  with  particular 
tenacity.  In  the  event  of  the  enemy  forcing 
this,  or  making  a  breach  in  the  curtains  by 


14         Essays  in  Western  History 

burning  or  scaling  the  palisades,  the  block- 
houses were  the  last  towers  of  refuge,  around 
which  the  contest  was  waged  to  the  bitter 
end. 

At  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking,  these 
frontier  forts  were  generally  commanded  by 
j:reoie  British    captains,  with  a  few  regular 

miiitiameyi  officcrs  and  privatcs  to  form  the 
nucleus  of  the  garrison,  the  remainder  of  the 
force  being  composed  of  French-Canadian  vol- 
unteers; although  we  shall  find  in  charge  at 
Kaskaskia  a  French  officer  in  the  English 
service.  At  Detroit  and  Mackinac,  throughout 
the  Revolutionary  War,  these  Creole  militia- 
men remained  firm  to  the  British  cause ;  but 
farther  south, — at  Vincennes,  Kaskaskia,  and 
Cahokia,  —  the  English  were  to  discover  in 
them  but  fair-weather  allies.  Sometimes  the 
fort,  as  at  Kaskaskia,  was  the  centre  of  the 
little  French  village  which  had  grown  up 
around  it;  in  other  cases,  as  at  Vincennes, 
it  commanded  the  cluster  of  cabins  from  some 
neighboring  eminence. 

The  people  of  these  French-Canadian  river- 
side hamlets  took  life  easily.  Among  them 
Life  among  wcrc  many  engaged  in  the  fur-trade  at 
the  Creoles  certain  seasons  of  the  year  —  bour- 
geois, or  masters,  for  the  most  part,  serving  as 


w 


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'      or  TH£ 

U>4}V&RSITY 


George  Rogers  Clark  1 5 

the  agents  or  clerks  of  Montreal  merchants ; 
voyageurs,  or  boatmen,  men-of- all-work  who 
propelled  the  canoes  when  afloat,  carried  them 
and  their  cargoes  over  portages,  transported 
packs  of  goods  and  furs  through  the  forest 
inlands,  cared  for  the  camps,  and  acted  as 
guards  for  the  persons  and  property  of  their 
employers ;  coureurs  de  bois,  or  wood-rangers, 
men  devoted  to  a  life  in  the  woods  through  the 
very  love  of  adventure,  sometimes  conducting 
a  far-reaching  fur-trade  on  their  own  account, 
—  the  widest  travellers  and  most  daring  spirits 
in  all  the  great  Northwest. 

The  habitants,  or  permanent  villagers,  were 
for  the  most  part  farmers  in  a  small  way.  Down 
by  the  river  stood  their  little  log  cabins,  with 
well-sweeps  and  orchards,  back  of  which 
stretched  narrow,  ribbon-like  fields,  remnants 
of  which  one  may  see  to-day  at  Quebec  and 
Montreal,  or  indeed  at  any  of  our  old  French 
towns  in  the  West  —  for  instance.  Green  Bay 
and  Prairie  du  Chien.  The  French  habitant 
was  a  social  animal.  He  loved  the  little  village 
wineshop,  where,  undisturbed  by  his  sharp- 
eyed,  sharp-visaged,  prim  and  gossipy,  white- 
aproned  spouse,  he  could  enjoy  his  pipe,  his 
bowl,  and  his  *'  fiddlers  three."  For  they  were 
famous  fiddlers,  these  French-Canadians.     On 


1 6         Essays  in  Western  History 

social  occasions  the  fiddle  was  indispensable. 
No  American  wilderness  was  so  far  away  that 
the  little  French  fiddle  had  not  been  there. 
The  Indians  recognized  it  as  a  part  of  the  furni- 
ture of  every  fur-trader's  camp.  At  night,  as 
the  wanderers  lounged  around  the  blazing  heap 
of  logs,  the  sepulchral  arches  of  the  forest  re- 
sounded with  the  piercing  strains  of  the  violin, 
accompanying  the  gayly  sashed  and  turbaned 
voyageurs,  as  in  metallic  tones  they  chanted 
melodies  of  the  river,  the  chase,  love,  and  the 
wassail.  In  the  village,  no  christening  or  wed- 
ding was  complete  without  the  fiddler ;  at  the 
almost  nightly  social  gatherings,  in  each  other's 
puncheon-floored  cabins,  this  cross-legged  king 
of  the  feast  was  enthroned  on  a  plank  table. 

The  river  was  their  highway.  From  earliest 
youth,  they  understood  the  handling  of  a 
canoe.  Just  as  in  the  Far  West  the  cowboy 
mounts  his  horse  to  cross  the  street,  and  refuses 
work  that  cannot  be  done  on  the  back  of  a 
broncho,  the  French-Canadian  went  in  his  boat 
to  visit  his  next-door  neighbor. 

It  made  small  difference  to  these  people  who 
were  in  political  control.  All  they  sought  was 
socially  to  be  left  alone,  to  enjoy  life  in  their 
own  simple  fashion.  On  general  principles, 
the  attitude  of  King  George,  who  wished  the 


George  Rogers  Clark  1 7 

Western  hunting-grounds  left  unimpaired,  was 
more  to  their  liking  than  the  aggressive, 
land-winning  temper  of  the  American  settlers. 
Then  again,  over  half  of  these  French-Canadians 
had  Indian  wives,  and  in  the  veins  of  many 
flowed  Indian  blood.  They  were  drawn  to  the 
savage  tribes  through  relationship  and  sympa- 
thy. The  men  of  New  France  were  always 
cheek  by  jowl  with  the  tribesmen,  an  amal- 
gamation surprising  to  men  of  Anglo-Saxon 
parentage,  who  seem  never  to  be  able  to 
sympathize  with  barbarians.  Yet  despite  these 
ties,  the  French  of  the  Illinois  posts,  having 
already  found  it  easy  to  change  masters,  were 
willing  enough  to  fraternize  with  the  American 
backwoodsmen  when  once  brought  into  com- 
munication with  them. 

Clark  was  well  aware  of  this  condition  of 
affairs  north  of  the  Ohio.  The  French  villages 
^  ^       ,    were  centres  of  British  influence,  where 

Centres  of  ' 

British  in-  the  natural  hostility  of  the  savages  to 
pience  ^^  American  frontier  settlements 
was  being  persistently,  excited  by  brLbes^and 
by  appeals  to  their  passions.  Clark  realized 
that  so  long  as  the  Northwest  was  suffered  to 
remain  a  safe  rallying-point  for  war-parties, 
Kentucky  would  continue  to  suffer  from  forays 
and  very  likely  the  settlers  be  wholly  exter- 


1 8         Essays  in  Western  History 

minated  or  at  best  driven  from  the  field.  He 
resolved,  therefore,  to  "  carry  the  war  into 
Africa,"  to  establish  a  military  frontier  in  the 
enemy's  country.  Spies  were  accordingly  sent 
to  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes.  They  soon  re- 
turned, reporting  that  the  British  were  keeping 
but  loose  guard,  and  that  while  the  French  had 
conceived  the  notion,  from  British  reports,  that 
the  Kentucky  backwoodsmen  were  barbarians 
more  cruel  than  the  Indians  about  them,  they 
were  not  more  than  lukewarm  in  their  attach- 
ment to  the  king. 

In  August,  1777,  Clark  started  overland  to 
Virginia,  where  he  consulted  with  Patrick 
Clark's  Henry,  then  governor  of  that  colony, 
project  as  well  as  with  other  prominent  men, 
regarding  his  plan  for  capturing  the  British 
posts  north  of  the  Ohio.  These  gentlemen  at 
once  fell  in  with  the  audacious  project ;  but  as 
the  success  of  the  undertaking  depended  on 
secrecy,  the  aid  given  him  by  the  governor 
was  obtained  from  the  legislature  on  the  gen- 
eral plea  that  it  was  designed  for  the  protection 
of  Kentucky.^      Clark   was  made    lieutenant- 

1  The  public  and  private  instructions  given  to  Clark  by 
Governor  Henry  are  in  the  Appendix  to  Clark's  letter  to 
George  Mason,  of  Virginia  (dated  Louisville,  November  19, 
1779),  as  edited  by  Pirtle,  in  Ohio  Valley  Historical  Series, 
No.  3  (Cincinnati,  1869). 


George  Rogers  Clark  19 

colonel  (January  2,  1778),  was  given  the  equiva- 
lent of  six  thousand  dollars  in  sadly  depreciated 
currency,  and  was  authorized  to  enlist  in  his 
cause  three  hundred  and  fifty  Virginians  wher- 
ever he  might  find  them. 

The  jealousy  between  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  impossibility  of  revealing  his 
Raising  purposc,  made  it  difficult  for  Clark 
voiujtteers  ^q  raisc  voluntccrs ;  indeed,  he  met 
with  considerable  opposition  from  those  who 
apparently  suspected  this  Western  movement, 
on  political  grounds,  or  were  jealous  of  an  at- 
tempt to  sequester  men  whose  services  were 
needed  in  the  defence  of  the  mountain  valleys. 
It  was  May  (1778)  before  he  could  collect 
about  a  hundred  and  fifty  borderers  from 
the  clearings  and  hunters'  camps  of  the  Alle- 
ghany foot-hills,  both  east  and  west  of  the 
range.^ 

1  Clark  says  in  his  letter  to  Mason  :  "  Many  leading  Men 
in  the  fronteers,  .  0  .  had  like  to  have  put  an  end  to  the 
enterprise,  not  knowing  my  Destination,  and  through  a  spirit 
of  obstinacy  they  combined  and  did  every  thing  that  lay  in 
their  power  to  stop  the  Men  that  had  Enlisted,  and  set  the 
whole  Fronteers  in  an  uproar,  even  condescended  to  harbour 
and  protect  those  that  Deserted ;  I  found  my  case  desperate, 
the  longer  I  remained  the  worse  it  was.  ...  I  plainly  saw 
that  my  Principal  Design  [an  attack  on  Detroit]  was  baffled. 
...  I  was  resolved  to  push  to  Kentucky  with  what  men  I 


20         Essays  in  Western  History 

They  were  a  rough,  and  for  the  most  part 
unlettered  folk,  these  Virginia  backwoodsmen 
The  back-  who  formed  Clark's  little  army  of  con- 
woodsmen  quest.  There  was  of  course  no  at- 
tempt among  them  at  military  uniform,  officers 
in  no  wise  being  distinguished  from  men.  The 
conventional  dress  of  eighteenth-century  bor- 
derers was  an  adaptation  to  local  conditions, 
being  in  part  borrowed  from  the  Indians. 
Their  feet  were  encased  in  moccasins.  Per- 
haps the  majority  of  the  corps  had  loose,  thin 
trousers  of  homespun  or  buckskin,  with  a 
fringe  of  leather  thongs  down  each  outer  seam 
of  the  legs ;  but  many  wore  only  leggings  of 
leather,  and  were  as  bare  of  knee  and  thigh  as 
a  Highland  clansman;  indeed,  many  of  the 
pioneers  were  Scotch-Irish,  some  of  whom  had 
been  accustomed  to  this  airy  costume  in  the 
mother-land.  Common  to  all  were  fringed 
hunting^  shirts  or  smocks,  generally  of  buck- 
skin —  a  picturesque,  flowing  garment  reaching 
from  neck  to  knees,  and  girded  about  the  waist 
by  a   leathern  belt,  from  which  dangled  the 

could  gather  in  West  Augusta;  being  Joined  by  Capt^  Bow- 
man and  Helms  who  had  raised  a  Compy  for  the  Expedition, 
but  two  thirds  of  them  was  stopt  by-the  undesign'd  Enemies 
to  the  Country  that  I  have  before  mentioned :  In  the  whole 
I  had  about  one  hundred  &  fifty  Men  Collected  and  set  sail 
for  the  Falls  [of  the  Ohio,  now  Louisville]." 


George  Rogers  Clark  2 1 

tomahawk  and  scalping-knife.  On  one  hip 
hung  the  carefully  scraped  powder-horn ;  on 
the  other,  a  leather  sack,  serving  both  as  game- 
bag  and  provision-pouch,  although  often  the 
folds  of  the  shirt,  full  and  ample  above  the 
belt,  were  the  depository  for  food  and  ammuni- 
tion. A  broad-brimmed  felt  hat,  or  a  cap  of 
fox-skin  or  squirrel-skin,  with  the  tail  dangling 
behind,  crowned  the  often  tall  and  always 
sinewy  frontiersman.  His  constant  companion 
was  his  home-made  flint-lock  rifle  —  a  clumsy, 
heavy  weapon,  so  long  that  it  reached  to  the 
chin  of  the  tallest  man,  but  unerring  in  the 
hands  of  an  expert  marksman,  such  as  was 
each  of  these  backwoodsmen. 

They  were  rough  in  manners  and  in  speech. 
Among  them,  we  must  confess,  were  men  who 
had  fled  from  the  coast  settlements  because  no 
longer  to  be  tolerated  in  a  law-abiding  com- 
munity. There  were  not  lacking  mean,  brutal 
fellows,  whose  innate  badness  had  on  the  un- 
trammelled frontier  developed  into  wickedness. 
Many  joined  Clark  for  mere  adventure,  for 
plunder,  and  deviltry.  The  majority,  however, 
were  men  of  good  parts,  who  sought  to  pro- 
tect their  homes  at  whatever  peril  —  sincere 
men,  as  large  of  heart  as  they  were  of  frame, 
many  of  them  in  later  years  developing  into 


22         Essays  in  Western  History 

citizens  of  a  high  type  of  effectiveness  in  a 
frontier  commonwealth.  As  a  matter  of  his- 
tory, most  of  them  proved  upon  this  expedition 
to  be  heroes  worthy  of  the  fame  they  won  and 
the  leader  whom  they  followed. 

On  the  border,  military  discipline  was  as 
slight  as  in  an  Indian  war-party.  The  officers, 
elected  by  open  vote,  exercised  little  authority 
over  the  wild,  daring  spirits  whom  they  nomi- 
nally led.  The  only  enduring  tie  between  them 
was  that  of  personal  regard  ;  the  only  cohesion 
in  the  force,  rehance  on  the  prowess  and  judg- 
ment of  the  commander.  Clark  had  the  full 
confidence  of  his  men,  holding  them  by  a  per- 
sonal influence  which  was  as  strong  as  it  was 
remarkable.  Probably  no  other  man  on  the 
border  could  have  done  what  he  was  about 
to  do. 

'•  I  set  out  from  Redstone  [Brownsville,  Pa.] 
the  1 2th  of  May,"  writes  Clark  in  his  famous 
The  letter  to  Mason,  "  leaving  the  Country 

fiatiiia  jfj  great  confusion,  much  distressed 
by  Indians."  His  little  fleet  consisted  of  the 
usual  flatboats  then  used  by  immigrants  and 
traders  to  the  West.  Stopping  at  Pittsburg 
and  Wheeling  to  take  on  the  simple  supplies 
for  which  Governor  Henry  had  given  him  requi- 
sitions upon  the  military  officers  of  the  upper 


George  Rogers  Clark  23 

Ohio  country,^  he  cautiously  floated  down 
the  Ohio.  Indian  attacks  were  imminent, 
for  the  river  was  frequently  being  crossed  by 
war-parties;  but  fortunately  the  flotilla  met 
with  no  opposition  from  this  source.  An  ex- 
ploring party  bound  for  the  Ozark  joined 
them  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha,  and 
together  the  two  expeditions  '*  had  a  very 
pleasant  voyage  to  the  falls  of  the  Ohio." 

Early  in  June  they  arrived  at  the  "  Falls  of 

the  Ohio."     Here,   at   the  present  Louisville, 

the  river   is    broken   by  falls,  which 

At  the  ^  ' 

Falls  of  both  in  ascending  and  descending 
the  Ohio  necessitated  the  unloading  of  boats 
and  the  use  of  the  portage  path  around  the 
obstruction.  In  primitive  days,  a  portage 
was  of  great  importance  strategically,  for  it 
controlled  the  waterway.  For  this  reason, 
Clark  tactfully  chose  as  his  base  of  operations 
the  island  in  the  centre  of  the  falls,  which 
commanded   the   portage   path,  and   upon    it 

^  "  For  the  Transportation  of  the  Troops,  provisions,  &c., 
djvvn  the  Ohio,  you  are  to  apply  to  the  Commanding  Officer 
at  Fort  Pitt  for  Boats,  &c.  .  .  .  You  are  to  apply  to  General 
Hand  for  powder  &  Lead  necessary  for  this  Expedition.  If 
he  can't  supply  it  the  person  who  has  that  which  Cap'  Lynn 
broj  from  Orleans  can.  Lead  was  sent  to  Hampshire  by  my 
orders  &  that  may  be  delivered  you."  —  Henry's  private 
instructions  to  Clark. 


24         Essays  in  Western  History 

built  a  blockhouse  fort  and  planted  a  crop  of 
Indian  corn.^ 

Another  reason  for  the  island  camp  was,  that 
dissatisfacti/?n  had  by  this  time  become  mani- 
fest among  his  men.     Few  knew  of 

Desertion       .  .  .  t  •    i 

his  purpose,  and  the  mystery  which 
necessarily  hung  around  the  expedition  was 
doubtless  preying  on  the  mind's  of  the  weak- 
hearted.  The  commander  found  it  essential 
to  keep  a  strict  guard  on  the  boats  and  to 
institute  a  discipline  w^hich  was  irksome  to  all. 
One  lieutenant,  heading  a  small  party,  con- 
trived to  escape,  but  the  following  day  some 
of  his  men  were  captured,  and  the  proper 
subordination  was  soon  secured. 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  June,  having  been 
joined  by  a  few  volunteers  from  Kentucky  and 
A  picked  the  Holston  valley,  Clark's  flotilla  was 
company  again  on  the  move,  the  goal  being 
Kaskaskia,  the  principal  post  in  the  Illinois 
country.  It  was  a  picked  company,  the  weak- 
lings having  been  left  at  the  island  to  guard 
the  blockhouse  and  cultivate  the  cornfield.^ 
Some  of  the  bravest  men  on  the  frontier  were 

1  Hence  the  present  name,  Corn  Island. 

2  ♦'  About  twenty  families  that  had  followed  me  much 
against  my  Inclination,!  found  now  to  be  of  service  to  me  in 
guarding  a  Blockhouse  that  I  had  erected  on  the  Island  to 
secure  my  Provisions."  —  Clark's  letter  to  Mason. 


George  Rogers  Clark  25 

\  the  captains  of  the  four  companies,  and  the 
equipment  was  as  Hght  as  that  carried  by 
Indians  on  a  foray. 

The  falls  were  "  shot "  during  a  total  solar 
eclipse,  an  omen  variously  interpreted  by  the 
superstitious  backwoodsmen.  Henceforth  the 
Ohio  was  followed  to  the  now  abandoned 
French  stronghold,  Fort  Massac,  some  ten 
miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee.^ 
Just  before  leaving  the  island,  Clark  had  re- 
ceived news  of  the  alliance  between  the  United 
States  and  France^  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  and  hoped  that  this  would 
make  it  easier  for  him  to  win  over  the  French 
in  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  country. 

The  American  commander  feared  to  descend 
the  Ohio  to  its  mouth  and  then  ascend  the 
The  march  Mississippi,  the  ordinary  route  to 
to  Kaskas-  Kaskaskia,  for  his  spies  had  brought 
^^^  word  that  that  path  was  being  pa- 

trolled  by   French    and    Indian    scouts.      He 

1  Built  by  the  French  in  1758,  on  their  retreat  from  Fort 
Duquesne.  The  site  is  now  a  public  park  in  the  environs  of 
Moundsville,  111. 

*  See  John  Campbell's  letter  to  Clark,  dated  Pittsburg, 
June  8,  1778,  in  American  Historical  Review,  viii.,  p.  497. 
The  original  of  this  and  most  other  manuscript  material  ex- 
tant, relative  to  Clark,  is  in  the  Draper  MSS.,  Wisconsin 
Historical  Society. 


26         Essays  in  Western  History 

therefore  struck  across  country  some  hundred 
and  twenty  miles,  being  guided  by  an  Ameri- 
can hunter  who  had  recently  been  in  the 
French  settlements.  The  poor  fellow  lost  his 
way  when  not  far  out  upon  the  path.  This 
incident,  Clark  relates,  "  put  the  whole  Troops 
in  the  greatest  Confusion,"  and  caused  the 
leader,  suspecting  treachery,  to  threaten  '*  to 
put  the  guide  to  Death  if  he  did  not  find  his 
way  that  Evening."  Fortunately  for  all  con- 
cerned, the  sadly  frightened  pilot  "  in  two 
hours  got  within  his  knowledge." 

With  great  caution,  Clark  toilsomely  pushed 
through  the  forest  and  over  "  those  level  Plains 
that  is  frequent  throughout  this  extensive  Coun- 
try .  .  .  much  afraid  of  being  discovered  in 
these  Meadows  as  we  might  be  seen  in  many 
places  for  several  miles."  On  the  evening  of 
the  fourth  of  July  his  "little  Army"  of  less 
than  two  hundred  riflemen  reached  the  east 
bank  of  the  Kaskaskia  River,  on  the  opposite 
side  from  and  above  the  town,  which  was 
about  three  miles  away.^ 

1  In  a  letter  by  Clark,  apparently  to  Governor  Henry,  and 
doubtless  written  in  the  summer  or  autumn  of  1777,  the 
former  describes  Kaskaskia  from  reports  made  to  him  by 
spies :  "  It  is  situated  30  leagues  above  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio,  on  a  river  of  its  own  name,  five  miles  from  its  mouth 
and  two  miles  east  of  the  Mississippi.  .  .  .  The  town  of  Kus- 


George  Rogers  Clark  27 

Remaining  under  cover  of  the  woods  until 
dusk,  the  Americans  moved  forward  along 
the  bank,  downstream,  to  a  farmhouse  a  mile 
from  the  village.  They  took  the  family  pris- 
oners, and  learned  from  them  that  Philippe 
de  Rocheblave,  the  French  commandant  of 
the  English  fort,  had  "  had  some  suspicean 
of  being  attacted  and  had  some  preparations, 
keeping  out  Spies,  but  they  making  no  dis- 
coveries, had  got  off  their  guard."  Roche- 
blave had  frequently  appealed  to  Detroit  for 
assistance,  but  without  avail.  The  captured 
habitants  reported  that  the  French  militia 
were  fairly  well  organized,  and  greatly  feared 

kuskies  contains  about  one  hundred  families  of  French  and 
English,  and  carry  on  an  extensive  trade  with  the  Indians  ; 
and  they  have  a  considerable  number  of  negroes  that  bear 
arms  and  are  chiefly  employed  in  managing  their  farms  that 
lay  around  the  town,  and  send  a  considerable  quantity  of  flour 
and  other  commodities  to  New  Orleans.  .  .  .  The  fort,  which 
stands  a  small  distance  below  the  town  is  built  of  stockading 
about  ten  feet  high,  with  blockhouses  at  each  corner,  with 
several  pieces  of  cannon  mounted,  powder,  ball,  and  all  other 
necessary  stores  without  guard  or  a  single  soldier.  .  .  .  The 
principal  inhabitants  are  entirely  against  the  American  cause, 
and  look  on  us  as  notorious  rebels  that  ought  to  be  subdued 
at  any  rate,  but  I  don't  doubt  but  after  being  acquainted  with 
the  cause  they  would  become  good  friends  to  it."  There  is 
only  a  transcript  of  this  letter  in  existence,  and  this  is  in  the 
Draper  MSS. ;  it  is  published  in  full,  edited  by  Professor 
F.  J.  Turner,  in  Amcr.  Hist.  Rev.^  April,  1903,  pp.  491-494. 


28         Essays  in  Western  History 

the  Americans,  while  the  Indians  of  the  dis- 
trict bitterly  hated  the  "  Big  Knives,"  ^  as 
they  called  the  frontiersmen.  There  were 
four  or  five  hundred  men  in  the  place,  and 
it  could  only  be  taken  by  surprise.  A  few 
days  before  there  had  been  an  alarm  in  the 
fort,  but  a  sense  of  security  was  now  felt. 

Clark  was  as  quick  in  action  as  in  thought. 
Having  at  the  farm  "  found  plenty  of  Boats  to 
Cross  in,"  his  men  were  in  two  hours'  time 
silently  ferried  across  the  Kaskaskia  River. 
They  were  divided  into  two  parties,  one  sur- 
rounding the  town,  which  was  above,  although 
adjoining  the  fort,  the  other  accompanying 
their  leader  and  a  French  guide  from  the  farm- 
house under  the  brow  of  the  river-bank  to  the 
postern  gate,  near  the  water's  edge. 

The  myth-maker  is  of  every  age  and  every 
land.  He  has  not  spared  American  frontier 
Apictu-  history.  We  see  his  handiwork  in 
resque  Hero  the  Pocahontas  story ;  in  popular  tales 
concerning  Jesuit  mission-sites  in  the 
Old  Northwest;  in  the  apocryphal  incidents  of 
the  siege  of  Wheeling;  in  the  hero-tales  of 
Boone  in  Kentucky,  of  the  scouts  Brady  and 

1  The  Indians  thus  styled  the  borderers,  probably  because 
whites  first  introduced  among  North  American  savages  the 
use  of  knives. 


George  Rogers  Clark  29 

Wetzel,  of  Brant,  the  Iroquois  chieftain  —  to 
mention  but  a  few.  He  has  also  befooled 
some  of  the  chroniclers  of  the  doings  of 
George  Rogers  Clark. 

We  have  been  told  that,  as  Clark  and  his 
men  lay  there  by  the  postern  gate,  they  could 
hear  the  sounds  of  French  fiddles  squeaking  a 
quadrille,  and  now  and  then  gay  shouts  and 
laughter.  The  officers  of  the  post  were,  it  is 
related,  giving  a  ball  to  the  habitants,  in  the 
large  assembly  room  with  its  puncheon  floor. 
The  outlying  houses  were  deserted.  Men  and 
women,  villagers  and  garrison,  Indians  and 
coureurs  de  bois,  were  without  regard  to  rank 
or  race  crowded  into  the  hall,  heeding  nothing 
save  the  dance.  Even  the  sentinels  had  de- 
serted their  posts  to  join  in  the  festivities,  and 
Kaskaskia,  a  victim  to  the  irrepressible  gayety 
of  the  French,  was  wholly  unguarded. 

Leaving  his  men  at  the  gate,  says  the  story- 
teller, Clark,  alone  with  his  guide,  strode  across 
the  parade  and,  leaning  against  the  door-post, 
with  folded  arms  watched  the  gay  scene  —  a 
patch  of  light  and  color  in  the  heart  of  the 
gloomy  wilderness.  As  he  calmly  stood  there, 
an  unbidden  guest,  an  Indian  lying  curled  in 
his  blanket  on  the  entry  floor,  started  and 
gazed    intently  upon  him.     Another  moment, 


30         Essays  hi  Western  History 

the  savage  sprang  to  his  feet  and  sounded  the 
war-whoop. 

In  the  midst  of  the  general  consternation, 
Rocheblave  and  his  brother  officers  hurried  to 
the  door ;  but  Clark,  unmoved,  bade  them  go 
on  with  the  dance,  but  be  pleased  to  remember 
that  they  were  now  holding  revelry  under  the 
banner  of  Virginia  and  not  that  of  Great 
Britain.  Instantly  Clark's  detail,  left  at  the 
gate,  warned  by  the  war-whoop  rushed  in  and 
secured  the  garrison.  It  is  a  picturesque  hero 
tale.  One  fastidious  might  say  it  smacked  over- 
much of  melodrama ;  but  I  almost  wish  it  were 
true,  for  our  often  sombre  Western  history 
seems  now  and  then  to  need  a  lurid  touch  like 
this.^ 

While  Clark's  letter  to  Mason  gives  but  the 
principal  incidents  in  outline,  we  have  the 
^,  credible  statement  of  one  of  his  men  ^ 

The 

capture  of  that  Clark's  party  of  about  a  dozen, 
Kaskaskia    ^^    ^j^^^   j^^    under    the    river-bank, 

were  *'  saluted  rherrily  "  by  keen-scented  dogs, 

^  The  tale  appears  to  have  first  been  published  m 
Denny's  "  Memoir  of  Major  Ebenezer  Denny,"  Penn.  Histor. 
Soc.  Publications  (i860),  vii.,  pp.  217,  218.  The  scene  has 
been  represented  by  an  artist  in  Lodge's  Story  of  the  Revolu- 
tion (N.  Y.,  1898),  ii.,  p.  20. 

2  Statement  of  Daniel  Henry  to  L.  C.  Draper,  in  1844,  in 
the  Draper  MSS. 


George  Rogers  Clark  31 

but  this  did  not  disturb  the  Httle  garrison. 
Finding  the  fort  gate  open,  they  pushed  on  in 
the  dark  to  Rocheblave's  house,  pointed  out  by 
the  guide,  found  and  captured  the  unsuspecting 
governor  in  an  upper  room,  brought  him  below, 
and  then  gave  "  a  loud  huzza,  answered  by  the 
other"  party,  which  had  now  divided  into 
squads  of  four  or  five  men  each.  Yelling  like 
mad,  the  now  united  Virginians  easily  over- 
awed the  puny  garrison  of  Creoles,  and,  to  re- 
sume our  quotations  from  Clark,  "in  15 
minutes "  were  masters  of  the  place  without 
the  firing  of  a  gun. 

Every  street  was  guarded,  and  runners  were 
sent  out,  **  ordering  the  People  on  pane  of 
Death  to  keep  close  to  their  Houses,  which 
they  observ'd."  At  daylight,  the  soldiers  and 
the  people  were  disarmed.  By  this  stern 
promptness  Clark  had  succeeded  jn  thoroughly 
cowing  the  villagers — "nothing  could  excell 
the  Confusion  these  People  seemed  to  be  in, 
being  taught  to  expect  nothing  but  Savage 
'  treatment  from  the  Americans.  Giving  all  for 
lost  their  Lives  were  all  they  could  dare  beg 
for,  which  they  did  with  the  greatest  fervancy, 
they  were  willing  to  be  Slaves  to  save  their 
families.  I  told  them  it  did  not  suit  me  to 
give   them  an  answer   at  that   time,  they    re- 


32         Essays  in  Western  History 

pared  to  their  houses,  trembhng  as  if  they 
were  led  to  Execution ;  my  principal  would 
not  suffer  me  to  distress  such  a  number 
of  People,  except,  through  policy  it  was 
necessary." 

Their  mercurial  spirits  soon  rose,  however, 
when  they  learned  during  the  day  that  instead 
of  being  made  the  slaves  of  the  bloodthirsty 
Virginians,  they  were,  upon  taking  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  Republic,  to  be  allowed  to 
come  and  go  at  their  pleasure,  and  meet  in  their 
little  Catholic  church  as  of  old.  Clark  ex- 
plained to  a  deputation  of  the  people  the 
American  view  of  the  war,  and  added  that 
the  Republic  meant  to  free,  not  enslave,  the 
people  of  the  Illinois  country,  and  would  be 
a  better  friend  to  them  than  the  British 
king. 

"  No  sooner  had  they  [a  deputation  of  vil- 
lagers who  waited  on  him]  heard  this,"  pictur- 
"yi«^;c^drjj  esquely  writes  Clark,  **  than  joy 
of  joy''  sparkled  in  their  Eyes  and  [they]  fell 
into  Transports  of  Joy  that  really  surprised 
me.  .  .  .  They  returned  to  their  families, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  the  scean  of  mourning 
and  distress,  was  turned  into  an  excess  of 
Joy,  nothing  else  seen  nor  heard.  Addorn- 
ing  the  streets  with  flowers  Pavilians  of  dif- 


George  Rogers  Clark  33 

ferent    colours,    compleating   their    happiness 
by  singing,  &c." 

*  To  a  man,  the  Creoles  took  the  oath  of  loy- 
alty to  the  United  States.  Commander  Roche- 
blave,  however,  had  been  violent  and  insulting 
in  temper,  and  Clark,  to  teach  the  people  a 
lesson,  sent  him  on  to  Virginia  as  a  prisoner 
and  appropriated  his  black  slaves,  which  were 
soon  after  sold  for  the  equivalent  of  $2,509. 
This  prize-money  was  divided  among  the  rifle- 
men, who  were  well  pleased  at  the  financial 
outcome  of  the  expedition. 

As  for  Father  Pierre  Gibault,^  the  Kaskas- 
kia  priest,  he  was  a  zealous  Clark  man  from 
Father  the  time  the  generous  conqueror  gave 
Gtbauit  j^jj^^  ^Q  understand  that  an  American 
officer  had  "  nothing  to  do  with  Churches  more 
than  to  defend  them  from  Insult.  That  by  the 
laws  of  the  State  [Virginia]  his  Religion  had  as 
great  Previledges  as  any  other :  This  seem'd  to 
compleat  their  happiness."  The  good  father 
assured  his  new  friend  that  although  as  a  priest 
he  had  "  nothing  to  do  with  temporal  business, 
that  he  would  give  them  such  hints  in  the 
Spiritual  way,  that  would  be  very  conducive  to 
the  business." 

1  Whom   Clark,  singularly  perverse  in   the   spelling    of 
foreign  proper  names,  calls  "  Mr.  Jeboth." 
3 


34         JBssays  in  Western  History 

A   small    party   of   Americans,   with   some 

French   volunteers   now  eager    to    serve   the 

cause   of  Virginia,  went   rapidly   on 

Cahokia  °  r       j 

horseback  to   Cahokia,  "  about  sixty 
miles    up    the    Country,"    where    the    people 
promptly   fraternized  with   the  invaders,   and 
accepted    Captain   Joseph    Bowman    as    local 
superintendent.     At   the  same  time,    Gibault, 
on   his    own    motion,    in    company   with   Dr. 
Le  Font,  principal  of  the   Jesuit  seminary  at 
Kaskaskia,  and  a  few  others,  went  overland  to 
Vincennes,  **a  Town  about  the  size  of  Williams- 
burg."    On  the  first  of  August  they  returned 
with  the  news  that  through  the  father's  influ- 
ence the  American   flag  had  been  hoisted  on 
the  walls  of  the    fort,  from   which   the   half- 
dozen  British  soldiers  had  deemed  it  wise  to 
withdraw.    Clark  at  once  sent  Captain  Leonard 
Helm  to  take  command  of  the  French  militia 
at  Vincennes,  while  he  remained  at  Kaskaskia. 
Successful  in  his  immediate  designs,  Clark's 
position  was  nevertheless  perilous.     "  The  nu- 
merous Tribes  of  Indians  attached  to  the  French 
was  yet  to  enfluence,  for  I  was  too  weak  to 
treat  them  in  any  other  way  .  .  .  every  Nation 
of  Indians  could  raise  three,  or  four  times  our 
Number.  .  .  .  Savages,  whose  minds  had  long 
been  poisoned  by  the  English."     Far  to  the 


George  Rogers  Clark  35 

north  lay  the  British  base  in  the  Northwest. 
These  southern  towns  were  but  the  outposts  of 
a  formidable  and  resourceful  enemy,  concern- 
ing whose  movements  he  could  learn  but  little. 
His  chief  desire  was  to  strike  at  Detroit, 
as  the  centre  of  Enghsh  operations;  but  for 
A  new  this  he  needed  a  far  larger  corps 
difficulty  —  indeed,  he  lacked  sufficient  men 
for  his  present  plans,  which  involved  several 
side  expeditions  among  both  French  and  In- 
dians, in  order  to  secure  his  foothold.  A  new 
difficulty  now  beset  him,'  and  increased  the 
hazard.  The  greater  part  of  his  followers, 
their  time  of  service  having  expired,  were  hot 
for  returning  home.  "  It  was,"  he  tells  us, 
"  with  Difficulty  that  I  could  support  that 
Dignity  that  was  necessary  to  give  my  or- 
ders that  force  that  was  necessary,  but  by 
great:  preasants^-and, promises  I  got  about 
one  hundred  of  my  Detachment  Enlisted  for 
eight  months,  and  to  colour  my  staying  with 
so  few  Troops  I  made  a  faint  of  returning  to 
the  Falls,  as  though  I  had  sufficient  confidence 
in  the  People,  hoping  that  the  Inhabitants 
would  remonstrate  against  my  leaving,  which 
they  did  in  the  warmest  terms.  .  .  .  Then 
seemingly  by  their  request  I  agreed  to  stay 
with  two  Companies    of  Troops,    and    that   I 


36         £ssays  in  Western  History 

hardly  thought,  as  they  alledged  that  so  many 
was  necessary ;  but  if  more  was  wanted  I  could 
get  them  from  the  Falls,  where  they  were  made 
to  believe  there  was  a  Considerable  Garrison." 

Those  volunteers  who  persisted  in  returning 
home  having  been  sent  off  to  the  Falls,  —  with 
Rocheblave  in  their  custody,  and  bearing  let- 
ters from  Clark  to  Henry,  "  letting  him  know 
my  situation  and  the  necessity  of  Troops  in 
the  Country,"  —  the  commander  settled  down 
for  a  winter  at  Kaskaskia.  To  fill  the  great 
gap  in  his  ranks,  he  enlisted  young  French 
volunteers  who,  being  "  fond  of  the  service, 
the  different  Companies  soon  got  Compleat." 

The  difficulties  which  surrounded  him,  and 
his  work  of  drilling  the  recruits,  are  best  told 
Drilling  in  his  own  words :  **  My  situation 
recruits  ^^^  wcckuess  conviuccd  me  that 
more  depended  on  my  own  Behaviour  and 
Conduct,  than  all  the  Troops  that  I  had  far 
removed  from  the  Body  of  my  Country:  situ- 
ated among  French,  Spanyards,  and  Numerous 
Bands  of  Savages  on  every  quarter :  Watching 
my  actions,  ready  to  receive  impressions  favour- 
able or  not  so  of  us,  which  might  be  hard  to 
remove,  and  would  perhaps  produce  lasting 
good,  or  ill  effects.  .  .  .  Strict  subordination 
among  the  Troops  was   my  first  object,  and 


George  Rogers  Clark  37 

[I]  soon  effected  it  .  .  .  Our  Troops  being  all 
Raw  and  undissiplined  You  must  [be]  sensible 
of  the  pleasure  I  felt  when  harangueing  them 
on  Perade,  Telling  them  my  Resolutions,  and 
the  necessity  of  strict  duty  for  our  own  preser- 
vation &c.  For  them  to  return  me  for  Answer, 
that  it  was  their  Zeal  for  their  Country  that  in- 
duced them  to  engage  in  the  Service,  that  they 
were  sencible  of  their  situation  and  Danger; 
that  nothing  could  conduce  more  to  their 
safety  and  happiness,  than  good  order,  which 
they  would  try  to  adhere  to,  and  hoped  that 
no  favour  would  be  shewn  those  that  would 
neglect  it.  In  a  short  time  perhaps  no  Garri- 
son could  boast  of  better  order,  or  a  more 
Valuable  set  of  Men." 

Another  important  duty  consisted  in  obtain- 
ing a  good  understanding  with  the  Spaniards 
who,  from  their  northern  capital,  the 
friends  the  neighbor  hamlet  of  St.  Louis,  con- 
span- ^^  trolled  Upper  Louisiana.  His  ad- 
'^'^^  ^  vances     were    well    taken    by    Don 

Francisco  de  Leyba,  the  lieutenant-governor. 
"  Our  friends  the  Spanyards,"  Clark  writes, 
are  "  doing  every  thing  in  their  power  to 
convince  me  of  their  friendship."  De  Leyba, 
who  met  him  at  Cahokia,  appears  at  once  to 
have  formed  an  attachment  for  the  gallant  Vir- 


38         Essays  in  Western  History 

ginian,  who  on  his  part  testifies  that  as  he  ''was 
never  before  in  comp^  with  any  Spanish  Gent 
I  was  much  surprised  in  my  expectations ;  for 
instead  of  finding  that  reserve  thought  peculiar 
to  that  Nation,  I  here  saw  not  the  least  symp- 
toms of  it,  freedom  almost  to  excess  gave  the 
greatest  pleasure." 

•'  Domestick  affairs  being  partly  well  settled," 
Clark  playfully  continues,  *'  the  Indian  Depart- 
The  tribe-  "^^"^  Came  next  the  object  of  my 
men  con-  attention  and  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance." The  sudden  arrival  in  the 
country  of  the  Big  Knives  had  thrown  the 
tribesmen  in  the  *'  greatest  consternation."  For 
a  time  they  knew  not  which  cause  to  espouse. 
"  They  were  generally  at  War  against  us,  but 
the  French  and  the  SpainyaMs  appearing  so 
fond  of  us  confused  them,  they  counciled  with 
the  French  Traders,  to  know  what  was  best  to 
be  done,  and  of  course  was  advised  to  come 
and  selicit  for  peace,  and  did  not  doubt  but  we 
might  be  good  Friends."  By  dint  of  a  combi- 
nation of  threats,  cajolery,  and  braggart  talk, 
well  suited  to  impress  them,  Clark  skilfully 
brought  the  Indians  to  terms.  His  vigorous 
speeches,  sent  to  Bowman  at  Cahokia  ('*  Cohos  " 
of  Clark's  manuscript)  and  Helm  at  Vincennes, 
were  read   by  those   commanders  to  the  as- 


George  Rogers  Clark  39 

scmbled  tribes,  and  *'did  more  service  than  a 
Regiment  of  Men  cou'd  have  done ;  "  while 
French  and  half-breed  messengers  carried 
similar  overtures  through  a  wide  belt  of 
country,  going  as  far  north  as  the  Fox  River 
in  Wisconsin. 

Proceeding  to  Cahokia  himself  to  meet 
the  Indians  at  a  great  council,  *'  it  was  with 
Sav«ige  astonishment,"  he  writes,  that  he 
friends  ''  vicwcd  the  Amazciug  number  of  Sav- 
ages that  soon  flocked  into  the  town  of  Cohos 
to  treat  for  peace,  and  to  hear  what  the  Big 
knives  had  to  say,  many  of  them  500  miles 
distant,  Chipoways,  Ottoways,  Petawatomies, 
Puans,  Sacks,  Foxes,  Sayges,  ■  Tauways,  Maw- 
mies  ^  and  a  number  of  other  Nations,  all  living 
east  of  the  Messicippa,  and  many  of  them  at 
War  against  us."  Indeed,  the  number  of  his 
new-found  savage  friends  that  assembled  at 
Cahokia  was  so  great  that  during  the  five 
weeks  of  his  stay  there,  ''  such  a  number  of 
Devils  "  gave  him  great  anxiety  and  required 
a  stern  hand  to  repress ;  for  they  v/ere  fond, 
after  the  manner  of  wild  animals,  of  testing 
the  strength  of  the  stranger,  who,  however, 
stoutly  held  his  own  among  them. 

1  Chippewas,  Ottowas,  Potawatomis,  Winnebagoes,  Sauks, 
Foxes,  Osages,  lowas,  Miamis. 


40         Essays  in  Western  History 

Godefroy  Linctot,  the  French  trader  at 
Prairie  du  Chien,  openly  espoused  the  Ameri- 
can cause  and  did  valuable  service  as  Clark's 
agent  north  and  west  of  the  Illinois  River, 
purchasing  horses  among  the  Sauks,  and  raid- 
ing the  country.  Clark's  management  of  the 
Indians  was  superb,  and  they  came  to  have  a 
wholesome  and  lasting  fear  of  the  Big  Knife 
chief;  while  those  of  the  French  who  fell  under 
his  influence  entertained  for  him  a  loving  regard. 

Meanwhile,  General  Hamilton  at  Detroit 
was  greatly  annoyed  by  the  news  from  Vin- 
Hamiiion's  ccnncs.  With  characteristic  energy 
war-party  j^^  ^^^^  agents  out  through  the 
tribes  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  and  made 
preparations  for  a  formidable  war-party  for  the 
retaking  of  that  important  post.  The  entire 
month  of  September  was  spent  in  fitting  out 
the  expedition.  The  seventh  of  October, 
headed  by  Hamilton  himself,  it  left  for  the 
south,  numbering  a  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  whites,  chiefly  Creole  volunteers,  and 
about   three    hundred    Indians. 

The  heavily  laden  flotilla  of  batteaux  pro- 
ceeded up  the  Maumee,  over  the  portage  of 
Vincennes  '^^"^  milcs,  and  dowu  a  tributary  of 
taken  by  the  Wabash.  The  water  was  shallow ; 
Hamilton     ^^  early  winter  set  in,  forming  ice  on 


George  Rogers  Clark  41 

the  streams ;  and  before  the  contingent  reached 
Vincennes  it  was  the  seventeenth  of  December, 
seventy-one  days  after  starting.  Captain  Helm 
and  his  one  American  soldier  made  a  show  of 
resistance,  but  on  the  French  militia  deserting 
to  the  enemy,  it  became  necessary  to  surren- 
der.-^ Some  of  Clark's  spies  from  Kaskaskia, 
who  were  hanging  on  Hamilton's  flanks,  were 
also  captured.  If  Hamilton  had  at  once  pushed 
forward  and  attacked  Clark  at  Kaskaskia,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  Americans  must  either 
have  succumbed  or  retired  beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi into  Spanish  territory.  But  in  mid- 
winter the  way  was  filled  with  great  difficulties 
for  the  advance  of  an  army  column,  hampered 
with  baggage.  Hamilton  therefore  remained 
at  Vincennes,  allowed  all  but  some  eighty  or 

1  *'  When  Governor  Hamilton  entered  Vincennes,  there 
were  but  two  Americans  there,  Captain  Helm,  the  com- 
mandant, and  one  Henry.  The  [latter]  had  a  cannon  well 
charged,  and  placed  in  the  open  fort  gate,  while  Helm  stood 
by  it  with  a  lighted  match  in  his  hand.  When  Hamilton 
and  his  troops  got  within  good  hailing  distance,  the  Ameri- 
can officer,  ill  a  loud  voice,  cried  out,  *  Halt ! '  This  stopped 
the  movement  of  Hamilton,  who,  in  reply,  demanded  a  sur- 
render of  the  garrison.  Helm  exclaimed  with  an  oath,  '  No 
man  shall  enter  until  I  know  the  terms.'  Hamilton  answered, 
'You  shall  have  the  honors  of  war;'  and  then  the  fort  was 
surrendered,  with  its  garrison  of  one  officer,  and  one  man."  — 
Butler's  Kentucky  (Louisville,  1834),  p.  80,  note. 


j^2         Essays  in  Western  History 

ninety  whites  and  a  hundred  Indians  to  return 
home,  and  spent  the  time  planning  for  a  great 
spring  campaign  against  the  Illinois,  in  which 
he  proposed  to  batter  down  the  forts  with 
cannon,  and  then  turning  southward  make  a 
clean  sweep  of  the  Kentucky  stations.  Had 
he  succeeded  in  this  bold  project,  all  American 
settlement  west  of  the  Alleghanies  would  have 
been  destroyed,  and  the  United  States  might 
have  lost  the  West  forever. 

The  news  of  the  recapture  of  Vincennes 
was  over  a  month  in  reaching  Clark.  Know- 
A  scare  at  i^^g  that  the  British  expedition  had 
Kaskaskia  ^X  Icast  reached  the  old  Indian  vil- 
lage on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Fort 
Wayne,  Indiana,  but  as  yet  uninformed  of  the 
result,  Clark  started  early  in  January  (1779) 
for  Cahokia,  in  order  to  hold  a  conference 
there  with  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the 
lUinois  country.  On  his  way  he  and  his 
"  Guard  of  about  six  or  seven  Men  and  a  few 
Gentlemen  in  Chairs  "  narrowly  escaped  being 
ambushed,  three  miles  out  of  Kaskaskia,  by  a 
party  of ''40  Savages  headed  by  white  Men" 
whom  Hamilton  had  sent  out  from  Vincennes 
to  take  Clark  prisoner,  having  given  them 
"  such  Instructions  for  my  treatment  as  did 
him  no  dishonour."     Delayed  by  an  accident, 


George  Rogers  Clark  43 

the  travellers  had  by  evening  only  reached  the 
old  French  village  of  La  Prairie  du  Rocher, 
fourteen  miles  northwest  of  Kaskaskia.  Here 
they  prepared  to  pass  the  night.  While  being 
entertained  at  a  ball,  an  express  rider  arrived 
with  the  appalling  news  that  Hamilton  was 
within  three  miles  of  Kaskaskia,  with  eight  hun- 
dred men.  "  I  never  saw  greater  confusion 
among  a  small  Assembly  than  was  at  that  time, 
every  Person  having  their  eyes  on  me,  as  if  my 
word  was  to  determine  their  good  or  Evil  fate." 
As  usual,  Clark  coolly  ordered  his  horses  sad- 
dled for  the  return,  and  told  the  frightened 
company  "  That  I  hoped  that  they  would  not 
let  the  news  Spoil  our  Divirsion  sooner  than 
was  necessary,  that  we  would  divirt  ourselves 
until  our  horses  was  ready,  forced  them  to 
dance,  and  endeavoured  to  appear  as  uncon- 
cerned as  if  no  such  thing  was  in  Adjutation." 
On  reaching  Kaskaskia,  the  inhabitants,  as 
yet  unattacked,  were  found  confident  that  the 
enemy  was  but  biding  his  time;  and  during 
the  next  few  days  Clark  was  obliged  to  exer- 
cise tact  and  firmness  in  a  remarkable  degree. 
The  Creoles,  confident  that  the  Americans 
would  lose,  and  that  the  English  would  treat 
them  badly  for  having  succored  the  enemy,  at 
first  affected  neutrality.     But  after  Clark  had 


44         Essays  in  Western  History 

made  a  feint  of  burning  the  town  and  of 
hanging  a  villager  who  had  circulated  dis- 
comforting rumors  of  a  British  advance,  the 
Kaskaskians  again  profusely  expressed  their 
devotion  to  Virginia.  Whereupon  the  astute 
commander  "altered  my  conduct  towards  them 
and  treated  them  with  the  greatest  kindness, 
granting  them  every  request,  my  influence 
among  them  in  a  few  hours  was  greater  than 
ever."  The  incident  closed  happily  with  the 
discovery  that  **  the  great  Army  that  gave  the 
alarm  consisted  only  of  about  forty  Whites 
and  Indians  making  their  Retreat  as  fast  as 
possible  to  St.  Vincent,  sent  for  no  other  pur- 
pose, as  we  found  after  than  to  take  me." 

This  adventure  convinced  Clark  —  although 
he  had  as  yet  received  no  news,  for  his  spies 
Clark  on  the  Wabash  had    been  taken  by 

uneasy  ^^  enemy —  that  Hamilton  was  now 
at  Vincennes.  The  French  in  the  Illinois 
elsewhere  than  at  Kaskaskia  where  they  now 
stoutly  professed  confidence  in  the  Americans, 
were  panic-stricken,  and  the  neighboring  tribes 
grew  insolent  in  their  demands.  Confidently 
expecting  an  attack,  the  commander  made 
careful  preparations,  even  to  the  extent  of 
planning  to  burn  the  outlying  dwellings,  so  as 
to  afford  no  cover  to  the  enemy.     He  felt  sure 


George  Rogers  Clark  45 

of  his  meagre  garrison,  but  had  the  gravest 
doubts  of  cooperation  from  the  Creoles  out- 
side. His  requested  reinforcements  could 
hardly  be  expected  at  this  season  from  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky.  He  philosophically  de- 
clares that  he  "  suffered  more  uneasiness  than 
when  I  was  certain  of  an  immediate  attact,  as 
I  had  more  time  to  reflect."  The  end  of 
American  rule  seemed  near. 

The  gloom  lifted  on  the  evening  of  the 
twenty-ninth  of  January,  when  Col.  Francis 
Vigo's  in-  Vigo  arrived  from  St.  Louis  with  defi- 
formatton  j^j|.g  information  concerning  the  small- 
ness  of  Hamilton's  winter  garrison  at  Vincennes, 
and  his  intended  inaction  until  spring.  Vigo, 
a  Spanish  merchant  who  had  business  connec- 
tions with  the  governor  of  Upper  Louisiana, 
had  visited  Clark  upon  the  latter's  capture  of 
Kaskaskia,  and  not  only  promised  his  influence 
in  behalf  of  the  Virginians,  but  made  them  a 
substantial  loan.  Upon  Clark's  request  he 
went  to  Vincennes,  accompanied  only  by  a 
servant,  to  ascertain  the  situation  of  affairs. 
Hamilton,  suspicious  of  his  intent,  for  a  time 
held  him  on  parole  at  the  fort,  but  finally 
allowed  him  to  depart  on  signing  an  agreement 
"not  to  do  anything  injurious  to  the  British 
interests  on  his  way  to  St.  Louis."   As  promised, 


4^         Essays  in  Western  History 

Vigo  proceeded  to  St.  Louis  in  his  piroque,  but 
thereupon  promptly  re-embarked  and  crossed 
to  Kaskaskia,  bringing,  as  Clark  writes,  "every 
intilligence  I  could  wish  to  have." 

Clark  was  eminently  a  man  of  action.  Recog- 
nizing that  if  Hamilton  proceeded  against  him 
Forestall-  "^  would  be  lost,  he  at  once  deter- 
ingthe  mined  to  forestall  the  enemy  by  mak- 
enemy  .^^  ^^  attack  himsclf  **  It  was  at 
this  moment,"  he  declares,  "  I  would  have 
bound  myself  seven  years  a  Slave,  to  have 
had  five    hundred  Troops." 

"  I  had  a  Large  Boat  prepared  and  Rigged," 
—  a  rowing  galley  or  batteau,  called  the  *'  Will- 
ing," —  "  mounting  two  four  pounders  4  large 
swivels  Manned  with  a  fine  Comp  [of  forty  men] 
commanded  by  Lieut.  Rogers.  .  .  .  This  Vessel 
when  compleat  was  much  admired  by  the  In- 
habitants as  no  such  thing  had  been  seen  in 
the  Country  before.  I  had  great  Expectations 
from  her."  The  galley  was  despatched  in  the 
evening  of  the  fourth  of  February,  with  orders 
to  patrol  the  Ohio  and  if  possible  to  approach 
within  ten  leagues  of  Vincennes,  on  the  Wabash, 
the  purpose  being  to  prevent  English  boats  from 
descending  upon  the  Kentucky  settlements. 

**  I  conducted  myself  as  though  I  was  sure 
of  taking  Mr.  Hamilton,  instructed  my  officers 


George  Rogers  Clark  47 

to  observe  the  same  Rule.  In  a  day  or  two  the 
'Country  seemed  to  believe  it,  many  anctious 
to  Retrieve  their  Characters  turned  out,  the 
Ladies,  began  also  to  be  spirited  and  interest 
themselves  in  the  Expedition,  which  had  a 
great  effect  on  the  Young  Men."  Persuaded 
by  the  Creole  girls,  both  at  Cahokia  and  Vin- 
cennes,  "  the  Principal  Young  Men  of  the  Illi- 
nois "  flocked  to  the  call  of  the  tall  Virginian. 
Upon  the  day  following  the  departure  of  the 
"  Willing,"  he  was  able  to  march  out  of  Kas- 
kaskia  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  and  seventy^ 
bold  fellows,  American  and  French.  "  I  cannot 
''Inward  ^ccouut  for  it,"  dcclarcs  our  hero, 
assurance     '♦  but  I  Still  had  iuward  assurance  of 

of  success "  ,  111  '1 

success,  and  never  could  when  weigh- 
ing every  Circumstance  doubt  it:  But  I  had 
some  secret  check." 

In  order  to  surprise  Vincennes,  it  was  of 
course  necessary  to  avoid  the  usual  river  route 
by  the  Ohio  and  the  Wabash.  The  expedition 
>started  off  across  the  country,  a  distance  of 
some  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles.  In  sum- 
mer it  was  a  delightful  region  of  alternating 

1  Clark  says,  "a  little  upwards  of  two  hundred";  but 
Bowman's  Journal  (Pirtle's  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  100),  from  which  we  obtain  many  details  of  the  march, 
specifically  gives  the  number  as  "  170  men  .  .  .  [including] 
artillery,  pack-horses,"  &c. 


^        Essays  in  Western  History 

lakes,  rivers,  groves,  and  prairies  —  "I  suppose 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  Country  in  the  world." 
In  the  dead  of  winter,  it  afforded  fair  travelling 
A  difficult  over  the  frozen  plains  and  ice-bridged 
march  streams.  But  now,  in  February,  the 
weather  had  moderated  and  great  freshets  had 
flooded  the  broad  area  of  lowland.  The  ground 
was  boggy,  progress  was  slow  and  difficult, 
there  were  no  tents,  the  floods  had  driven  away 
much  of  the  game,  —  although  ''numbers  of 
buffaloes "  were  killed  early  in  the  march,  — 
and  Clark  and  his  officers  were  often  at  their 
wits'  ends  to  devise  methods  for  keeping  their 
hard-worked  men  in  good  spirits.  The  several 
companies  vied  in  hunting  and  cooking  for 
each  other;  and  at  night  held  feasts  in  the 
Indian  fashion  around  great  camp-fires,  at  which 
there  were  singing  and  dancing,  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  the  inevitable  French  fiddle. 
And  thus  the  first  week  sped.  Then  came 
ry  13)  the  so-called  "  drowned  lands"  of 
j,j^^  the  Wabash,  a  wide  stretch  of  sub- 

'' drowned  merged  country  extending  the  most  of 
the  way  from  the  Little  Wabash  into 
Vincenncs.  The  two  branches  of  the  Little  Wa- 
bash, with  channels  a  league  apart,  were  now 
so  high  that  they  made  a  single  river  five  miles 
wide,  with  the  water  in  no  place  less  than  three 


George  Rogers  Clark  49 

feet  deep.  ''This  would  have  been  enough  to 
have  stoped  any  set  of  men  that  was  not  in  the 
same  temper  we  was  in." 

It  was  the  following  afternoon  before  a  large 
canoe  could  be  constructed,  and  on  the  third 
day  this  was  employed  in  transporting  the  men 
and  baggage  across  the  deep  channels,  the 
horses  swimming  behind.  In  the  shallow 
places,  men  and  beasts  plunged  through  the 
bush-strewn  water  and  mud  —  the  former 
*'  Building  scaffolds  at  each  [shallow]  to  lodge 
our  Baggage  on  until  the  Horses  Crossed  to 
take  them;  it  Rained  nearly  a  third  of  our 
march,  but  we  never  halted  for  it." 

There  was  no  longer  any  game  to  be  had,  and 
it  was  now  dangerous  to  discharge  guns,  be- 
Fati  tie  causc  of  the  proximity  to  Vincennes. 
and  Almost    wom    out    by    fatigue    and 

""-g^^  hunger,  the  expedition  reached  the 
Embarrass  River  on  the  seventeenth,  twelve 
days  out  from  Kaskaskia;  but  it  was  found 
impracticable  to  cross  the  Embarrass,  now  a 
raging  flood.  The  best  they  could  do  was  to 
find  a  swampy  little  hillock  on  which  —  amid 
"  drizzly  and  dark  weather  "  —  they  crowded 
together  for  the  night,  of  course  wet  to  the 
skin,  shivering  with  cold,  and  with  neither  food 
nor  fire. 

4 


50         Essays  in  Western  History 

Next  morning,  the  sound  of  the  sunrise  gun 
at  Vincennes,  but  nine  miles  away,  came 
Waiicming  booming  over  the  waste  of  waters. 
through       They  were,   however,   still   far  from 

°^  having  reached  their  goal.  Wallow- 
ing through  the  bog,  down  the  west  bank  of 
the  Embarrass,  they  came  at  last  to  the  Wabash, 
and  here  two  days  were  spent  in  building 
canoes.  '*  From  the  spot  we  now  lay  on  [it] 
was  about  ten  miles  to  Town,  and  every  foot 
of  the  way  put  together  that  was  not  three  feet 
and  upwards  under  water  would  not  have 
made  the  length  of  two  miles  and  a  half,  and 
not  a  mouthful  of  Provision.  ...  If  I  was  sen- 
sible that  you  [George  Mason]  would  let  no 
Person  see  this  relation,  I  would  give  You  a 
detail  of  our  suffering  for  four  days  in  crossing 
those  waters,  and  the  manner  it  was  done,  as 
I  am  sure  that  You  wou'd  Credit  it,  but  it  is 
too  incredible  for  any  Person  to  believe  except 
those  that  are  well  acquainted  with  me  as  You 
are,  or  had  experienced  something  similar  to 
it.  I  hope  you  will  excuse  me  until  I  have 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  personally."  Clark's 
energies  were  taxed  to  the  utmost  to  keep  his 
Frenchmen  from  deserting,  they  being  greatly 
depressed  by  the  miseries  of  the  situation,  but 
the  Americans  were  undaunted. 


George  Rogers  Clark  5 1 

Details  sent  on  a  raft  and  in  a  canoe  to  steal 
boats  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  town  re- 
''Hard  turned  after  two  days  without  success, 
fortune!''  '' for  there  was,"  says  Bowman,  "  not 
one  foot  of  dry  land  to  be  found.  .  .  .  Col. 
Clark  sent  two  men  in  the  canoe,  down  to 
meet  the  batteau  [the  **  Willing  "],  with  orders 
to  come  on  day  and  night ;  that  being  our  last 
hope,  and  [we]  starving.  .  .  .  No  provisions 
of  any  sort,  now  two  days.  Hard  fortune  !  " 
At  noon  of  the  twentieth,  a  boat  was  brought 
in  with  five  Frenchmen  from  Vincennes.  The 
villagers  reported  that  among  Hamilton  and 
his  men  there  was  no  suspicion  of  an  attack, 
while  ''the  inhabitants  were  well  disposed 
towards  us."  This  news  and  the  killing  of  a 
deer  raised  the  spirits  of  the  party. 

On  the  twenty-first  it  rained  all  day.  At 
daybreak  the  invaders  were  ferried  to  the  east 
side  of  the  Wabash,  that  on  which  lay  Vin- 
cennes. Through  the  vast  swamp,  —  "  no 
dry  land  on  any  side  for  many  leagues,"  — 
the  water  often  up  to  their  chins,  the  strongest 
waded,  the  canoes  carrying  the  weak  and  fam- 
ished. With  infinite  toil,  but  three  miles  had 
been  covered  when  at  dusk  they  sank  ex- 
hausted upon  another  boggy  island  knoll, 
and  for  the  seventh  night  —  within  sound  of 


52         Essays  in  Western  History 

"  the  evening  and  morning  guns  from  the 
fort "  —  slept  hungry  and  in  clothes  sopping 
wet. 

Next  day  it  was  the  same  story,  the  brave 
fellows  plunging  on  through  the  freezing  flood, 
The  man  Indian  file,  the  man  of  iron  at  the 
oftron  head  now  and  then  leading  off  in 
a  favorite  song,  which  was  caught  up  along 
the  column  and  helped  lighten  the  weary  feet 
of  the  adventurers.  That  night  was  passed  on 
a  maple-grown  hillock  six  miles  out  from  Vin- 
cennes.  It  was  bitter  cold ;  in  the  morning 
(the  23d)  there  was  ice  half  an  inch  thick 
on  the  smooth  water,  and  the  men  were 
encased  in  arctic  armor.  The  sun  rose  bright. 
Clark  assured  his  stiffened,  half-frozen,  well- 
nigh  famished  crew  that  the  next  night  would 
see  them  in  Vincennes;  then,  dashing  into 
the  water  at  the  head  of  the  file,  ordered  his 
officers  to  close  the  rear  and  shoot  any  man 
who  refused  to  march.^ 

1  Law's  Colonial  History  of  Vincennes  (Louisville,  1858),  p. 
32,  gives  this  story,  which  apparently  has  been  somewhat 
heightened  in  color  :  "  In  one  of  the  companies  was  a  small 
boy  who  acted  as  drummer.  In  the  same  company  was  a 
seargeant,  standing  six  feet  two  inches  in  his  stockings,  stout, 
athletic,  and  devoted  to  Clark.  Finding  that  his  eloquence 
had  no  effect  upon  the  men,  in  persuading  them  to  continue 
their  line  of  march,  Clark  mounted  the  little  drummer  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  stalwart  sergeant,  and  gave  orders  to  him 


George  Rogers  Clark  53 

Now  came  the  worst  experience  of  all.  The 
Horseshoe  Plain  before  them  had  been  trans- 
A  frightful  formed  by  the  floods  into  a  shallow 
crossing  j^j^g  fQ^j.  niiles  wide.  No  clump  of 
land  stood  above  the  water ;  it  was  one  smooth 
unbroken  expanse,  on  the  farther  side  of 
which  were  heavy  woods  shielding  them  from 
the  town.  About  the  centre,  the  prolonged 
hardships  of  the  march  began  at  last  to  tell  on 
all  save  the  strongest.  All  along  the  line  brave 
fellows  dropped  in  the  ranks,  and  the  canoe- 
men  frantically  plied  between  them  and  the 
land  beyond,  saving  the  helpless  from  drowning. 
The  strong  supported  those  who  could  still 
keep  their  feet,  while  Clark,  with  alternating 
gibe  and  stern  command,  exerted  himself  to 
animate  his  followers.  The  water  was  often 
to  the  shoulders  of  the  tallest;  and  when  at 
last  the  edge  of  the  island  grove  was  reached, 
there  were  few  who  did  not  sink  to  the  ground 
exhausted,  to  be  rallied  only  through  great 
exertion.     Fortunately  some  food  was  obtained 

to  plunge  into  the  half-frozen  water.  He  did  so,  the  little 
drummer  beating  the  charge  from  his  lofty  perch,  while 
Clark,  sword  in  hand,  followed  them,  giving  the  command 
as  he  threw  aside  the  floating  ice  — '  Forward  ! '  Elated  and 
amused  with  the  scene,  the  men  promptly  obeyed,  holding 
their  rifles  above  their  heads,  and  in  spite  of  all  obstacles, 
reached  the  high  land  beyond  them,  safely." 


54         Essays  in  Western  History 

from  a  party  of  Indian  women  who  chanced  to 
pass  in  a  canoe,  fires  were  lighted,  the  weakest 
were  treated  to  broth,  and  soon  all  were  in- 
spired to  fresh  courage. 

Two  miles  away,  through  the  woods  and 
across  another  lake,  they  could  see  the  town, 
H  miton  ^^*^  despair  was  followed  by  rejoicing. 
still  un-  "  Laying  in  this  Grove  some  time  to 
conscious  ^^y  ^^^  Clothes  by  the  Sun  we  took 
another  Prisoner,"  a  Creole  out  shooting  ducks, 
and  from  him  learned  that  Hamilton  was  still 
unconscious  of  his  danger.  Two  hundred  In- 
dians had,  however,  just  arrived  in  town.  This 
last  information  was  discouraging,  for  that 
made  the  force  in  Vincennes  — British,  French, 
and  Indian  —  four  times  his  own.  "  A  thou- 
sand Ideas,"  he  says,  "  flushed  in  my  Head  at 
this  moment."  He  now  thought  it  impolitic 
to  surprise  the  place,  for  in  the  fight  some  of 
the  French  and  Indians  might  be  killed  and 
this  would  embitter  the  rest;  whereas  his  in- 
formant told  him  the  French  were  lukewarm 
and  would  only  fight  if  forced  to  it. 

**  I  resolved  to  appear  as  Daring  as  possible, 
that  the  Enemy  might  conceive  by  our  be- 
ciark's  haviour  that  we  were  very  numer- 
leffgrio  Qus  and  probably  discourage  them." 
villagers       Accordingly  he  sent  by  this  man  the 


George  Rogers  Clark  55 

following  letter^  to  the  villagers,  who  lived 
apart  from  the  fort,  which  was  on  a  rising 
ground  overlooking  the  town : 

To  THE  Inhabitants  of  Post  St.  Vincents: 

Gentlemetiy  —  Being  now  within  two  miles  of  your 
village  with  my  army,  determined  to  take  your  Fort 
this  night,  and  not  being  willing  to  surprize  you,  I 
take  this  method  to  request  such  of  you  as  are  true 
citizens,  and  willing  to  enjoy  the  liberty  I  bring  you, 
to  remain  still  in  your  houses.  And  those,  if  any 
there  be,  that  are  friends  to  the  King,  will  instantly 
repair  to  the  fort,  and  join  the  Hair-buyer  General^ 
and  fight  like  men.  And  if  any  such,  as  do  not  go 
to  the  Fort  shall  be  discovered  afterwards,  they  may 
depend  on  severe  punishment.  On  the  contrary, 
those  that  are  true  friends  to  liberty,  may  depend 
on  being  well  treated.  And  I  once  more  request 
them  to  keep  out  of  the  streets ;  for  every  one  I  find 
in  arms  on  my  arrival,  I  shall  treat  as  an  enemy. 

G.  R.  Clark. 

As  they  gathered  in  the  public  square  of 
Vincennes  to  hear  the  letter  read,  Clark's  name 

1  Given  in  Bowman's  Journal,  in  Pirtle,  p.  104.  But 
while  Pirtle  gives  Clark's  letter  to  Mason  verbatim  et  liter- 
atim, Bowman's  Journal  is  taken  by  him  from  the  Louisville 
Literary  News-Letter  (November  21,  1840),  for  which  publi- 
cation it  was  obviously  *'  improved  "  in  diction,  orthography, 
punctuation,  and  capitalization ;  we  thus  have  only  a  para- 
phrase of  Clark's  letter,  not  the  actual  document. 


56        Essays  in  Western  History 

inspired  the  Creoles  with  awe.  His  sudden 
appearance  out  of  the  swamps  appalled  them, 
and  they  were  so  frightened  by  his  tone  of 
confident  menace  that  none  dared  show  enough 
favor  to  the  British  to  go  up  and  warn  the  gar- 
rison, who  had  seen  the  sudden  commotion  in 
the  village,  but  were  not  aware  of  the  cause. 

Clark's  camp  could  be  seen  from  the  town, 
although  not  from  the  fort.  An  open  plain 
A  ruse  ^^^  between  Vincennes  and  the  grove 
wherein  the  invaders  were  drying 
themselves  in  the  sun.  Realizing  that  he 
must  make  some  show  of  force  while  his  letter 
was  being  considered,  he  marched  his  men 
back  and  forth  just  within  the  edge  of  the 
wood ;  "  but  taking  advantage  of  the  Land, 
disposed  the  Hues  in  such  a  manner  that 
nothing  but  the  Pavilions  [doubtless  shelter- 
huts  of  boughs]  could  be  seen,  having  as  many 
of  them  as  would  be  sufficient  for  a  thousand 
Men,  which  was  observed  by  the  Inhabitants 
who  had  Just  Receiv'd  my  letter,  counted  the 
different  Colours  and  Judged  of  our  numbers 
accordingly.  But  I  was  careful  to  give  them 
no  oppertunity  of  seeing  our  Troops  before 
dark,  which  it  would  be  before  we  could  Arrive. 
The  Houses  obstructed  the  Forts  observing  us 
and  were  not  Allarmed  as  I  expected."     As 


George  Rogers  Clark  57 

for  the  Indians,  they  quickly  withdrew  out  of 
range,  to  await  the  issue  of  the  coming  fight 
between  the  Big  Knives  and  the  red-coats. 

At  sundown,  Clark  divided  his  party  into 
two  sections ;  he  commanded  one,  and  Bowman 
rj,,  the  other.     There  was  now  order  and 

The 

attack  on  regularity,  for  the  drill  which  the 
men  had  taken  at  Kaskaskia  was  be- 
ginning to  tell.  At  seven  o'clock,  Bowman's 
men  surrounded  the  town,  while  Clark's  pushed 
through  to  the  fort.  The  Creoles  greeted  them 
with  cheers  as  with  swinging  gait  they  marched 
up  through  the  village  street,  and  freely  gave 
them  assistance  and  much-needed  ammunition. 
Even  the  Indians,  in  their  admiration  of  the 
bold,  leather-clad  Virginians,  offered  to  take 
a  hand.  "  A  considerable  number  of  British 
Indians  made  their  escape  out  of  Town.  The 
Kickepous  and  Peankeshaws  to  the  amount  of 
about  one  hundred,  that  was  in  Town  immedi- 
ately Armed  themselves  in  our  favour  and 
Marched  to  attact  the  Fort.  I  thanked  the 
Chief  for  his  intended  service,  told  him  the 
111  consequence  of  our  People  being  mingled 
in  the  dark  ...  he  approved  of  it  and  sent 
off  his  Troops  .  .  .  and  staid  with  me  giving 
all  the  Information  he  could." 

The  garrison  were  still  unprepared.     Not  a 


58         Essays  in  Western  History 

word  of  this  transformation  scene  had  come  up 
from  the  village.  Hamilton  thought  ,that  the 
first  shots  were  fired  by  drunken  Indians,  but 
to  his  consternation  he  soon  saw  in  the  brilliant 
moonlight  that  the  stockade  was  surrounded 
by  American  borderers,  and  that  there  was 
serious  business  at  hand.  At  the  angles  of 
the  palisaded  fort  were  strong  blockhouses, 
the  second  floors  of  which  were  eleven  feet 
above  the  ground,  and  in  each  of  these  were 
cannons  and  swivels.  Clark  had  no  cannon, 
for  his  artillery,  taken  from  the  Kaskaskia  fort, 
had  soon  been  forced  to  abandon  the  march ; 
but  his  riflemen  —  each  of  whom  was  an  expert 
shot  and  well  sheltered  "  behind  Houses,  Pal- 
ings, and  Ditches,  &c.,  &c.,"  and  "  a  consider- 
able intrenchment  before  the  gate  where  I 
Intended  to  plant  my  Artillery  when  Arrived  " 
—  finally  silenced  the  guns  by  pouring  such 
a  constant  fire  through  the  loopholes  that  it 
was  impossible  for  the  gunners  to  withstand  it. 
The  Americans  themselves  were  unharmed. 
**  Fine  sport  for  the  sons  of  Liberty,"  exultantly 
wrote  Bowman  in  his  diary  for  that  day. 

In  the  matter  of  marksmanship,  the  British 
and  the  French-Canadian  militia  were  no  match 
for  the  backwoodsmen,  and  by  sunrise  it  was 
evident  that  the  long  night's  siege  had  sadly 


George  Rogers  Clark  59 

crippled  the  garrison,  although  "As  soon  as 
daylight,  the  Fort  began  to  play  her  small 
arms  very  'briskly." 

At  nine  o'clock,  Clark's  men  paused  to  take 
**  a  breakfast,  it  being  the  only  [regular]  meal 
Clark's  of  victuals  since  the  i8th  inst." — six 
■war^ting  ^^^g^  Meanwhile  Clark  sent  a  white 
flag  to  Hamilton  with  a  letter  inviting  him  to 
save  himself  from  ''  the  impending  storm  that 
now  threatens,"  and  surrender  his  garrison  and 
stores.  But  that  officer  tartly  declined  "to 
be  awed  into  an  action  unworthy  of  British 
subjects,"  and  thereupon  the  firing  was  hotly 
resumed. 

In  the  course  of  the  morning  a  party  of 
French  and  Indian  scouts,  in  the  employ  of  the 
Terroriz-  ^^'^tish,  camc  uoisily  into  town  with 
ingthe  scalps  and  prisoners  from  a  recent 
enemy  foray  against  American  settlers.     Be- 

fore they  discovered  the  changed  situation, 
Clark's  men  set  upon  them,  killing  and  scalp- 
ing two  and  partly  wounding  most  of  the 
others.  Six  were  captured,  and  then,  in  the 
sight  of  the  garrison,  deliberately  tomahawked 
and  thrown  into  the  river.  This  served  the 
double  purpose  of  inspiring  terror  among  the 
other  Indians,  by  showing  them  how  power- 
less  the   English  were   to    aid   them,  and  of 


6o         Essays  in  Western  History 

creating  a  panic  among  the  French  volunteers 
within  the  fort.  The  English  themselves  re- 
mained stubborn,  but  they  were  few  in  number. 
After  two  hours  of  fighting,  during  which 
several  men  in  the  fort  were  wounded  from 
Clark  shots  coming  through  the  portholes, 

^uncZdi-  I^an;iilton  sent  out  a  flag  and  re- 
tionaisur-  qucstcd  2,  trucc  of  three  days.  Clark 
render  responded  -with  the  following  note, 
demanding  unconditional  surrender :  ^ 

Colonel  Clarks.'Compliments  to  M'  Ham- 
ilton and  begs  leave  to  inform  him  that 
Co-  Clark  will  not  agree  to  any  Other 
Terms  than  that  of  M^  Hamilton's  Suren- 
dering  himself  and  Garrison,  Prisoners  at 
Discretion. 

If  M'  Hamilton  is  Desirous  of  a  Confer- 
ance  with  Col  Clark  he  will  meet  him  at 
the  Church  with  Capt".  Helms. 

Feby  24*'?i779.'  G.R.Clark 

Hamilton  agreed  to  the  conference,  which 
was  held  in  the  little  French  church.  The 
English  commander  sought  to  soften  the  terms, 
but  Clark  was  unyielding.  "  Towards  the  close 
of  the  Evening,"  articles  were  signed,  by  which 

1  The  original  is  in  the  Draper  MSS.,  and  is  reproduced 
in  the  present  volume  in  facsffiiile. 


George  Rogers  Clark  6i^ 

Hamilton  agreed  to  deliver  to  Clark  at  ten 
o'clock  the  following  morning,  Fort  Sackville 
—  the  English  name  of  Vincennes  post  —  *' as 
it  is  at  present  with  all  the  Stores,  &c  .  .  . 
The  Garrisson  are  to  deliver  themselves  up  as 
Prisoners  of  War  and  March  out  with  their 
Arms  and  Acoutriments,  &c.,  &c  .  .  .  Three 
days  time  be  allowed  the  Garrison  to  settle 
their  Accompts  with. the  Traders  and  Inhab- 
itants of  this  Place  .  .  .  The  Officers  of  the 
Garrisson  to  be  allowed  their  necessary  Bag- 
gage, &c.,  &c."'.  To  these  articles,  Hamilton 
attached  a  memorandum  stating  that  they  were 
"  Agreed  to  for  th'e  following  reasons :  The 
remoteness  from  succors ;  the  state  and  quan- 
tity of  provisions,  &c. ;  unanimity  of  officers 
an(i  men  in  its  expediency;  the  honourable 
terms  allowed;  and,  lastly,  the  confidence  in 
a  generous  enemy." 

At  the  appointed  hour  on  the  morning 
of  the  twenty-fifth,  we  learn  from  Bowman's 
The  diary     that*     "  Lieutenant     Governor 

surrender  Hamilton  and  his  garrison  of  about 
eighty  men  marched  out  [past  Bowman  and 
Mc  Carty's  companies],  whilst  Col.  Clark, 
Captains  Williams'  and  Worthington's  com- 
panies marched  into  the  Fort,  relieved  the 
Gentries,  hoisted  the  American  colours,  secured 


62         Essays  in  Western  History 

all  the  arms."  Thirteen  guns  were  fired,  as  a 
national  salute;  but  in  the  midst  of  the  jubi- 
lation a  premature  explosion  of  cartridges 
occurred  in  one  of  the  batteries,  by  which 
Bowman,  Worthington,  and  four  privates  were 
severely  burned.  The  fort  was  rechristened 
"  Patrick  Henry,"  in  honor  of  the  Governor  of 
Virginia,  in  whose  service  the  little  band  of 
conquerors  were  enlisted. 

The  capture  of  Vincennes  was  one  of  the 
most  notable  and  heroic  achievements  in  Amer- 
An  heroic     ^^^^    history.     Clark  had  conducted 
achiei'e-        a  forced  march  of  about  two  hundred" 
'"^"'  and  thirty  miles  through  almost  un- 

heard-of difficulties.  With  a  small  party  of 
ragged  and  half-famished  militiamen,  nearly 
half  of  whom  were  Creoles,^  he  had  captured, 
in  the  heart  of  a  strange  and  hostile  country, 
without  the  aid  of  his  artillery,  a  heavy  stock- 
ade mounted  by  cannons  and  swivels  and 
manned  by  a  trained  garrison.  It  was  a  bold 
scheme,    of  his   own    planning,   and    skilfully 

1  In  the  Draper  MSS.  is  a  letter  from  John  Rogers  to 
Major  Jonathan  Clark,  written  May  6, 1779,  while  en  route  to 
Virginia  with  the  detachment  guarding  Hamilton  and  the 
other  prisoners.  He  says,  "  We  made  loi  prisoners  and  had 
only  130  men  60  of  which  were  French  there  was  seven  men 
wounded  in  the  Fort  and  Seven  Indians  killed  that  were 
Comeing  in  with  two  prisoners." 


George  Rogers  Clark  63 

carried  out.  At  his  back  were  some  of  the 
best  fighting  men  on  the  border,  but  with  him 
rests  the  principal  credit. 

Hamilton,  after  being  sharply  reprimanded 
by  Clark  for  sending  scalping  parties  against 
the  frontier  settlements,  was  early  in  March 
sent  in  irons  to  Virginia,^  with  twenty-six  of 
his  fellows ;  the  others  were  paroled,  for  Clark 
had  no  means  of  subsisting  them. 

Captain  Helm,  now  released  from  captivity, 
ascended  the  Wabash  with  fifty  men,  and  two 
days  before  the  departure  of  the  prisoners  to 
Virginia  intercepted  a  flotilla  of  seven  batteaux 
coming  to  Vincennes  from  Detroit,  with  "  Pro- 
visions, Indian  goods,  &c."  — $50,000  worth, 
guarded  by  forty  French  volunteers  headed  by 
two  of  Hamilton's  officers.  The  booty  was 
divided  among  the  Virginians,  who  considered 
themselves  richly  recompensed  for  their  task. 

1  Hamilton  was  kept  in  close  confinement  at  Williams- 
burg, and  despite  the  protests  of  the  British  the  State  of 
Virginia  "  refused  to  exchange  him  on  any  terms "  until 
towards  the  close  of  the  Revolution.  Washington  wrote 
that  he  "had  issued  proclamations  and  approved  of  prac- 
tises, which  were  marked  with  cruelty  towards  the  people 
that  fell  into  his  hands,  such  as  inciting  the  Indians  to  bring 
in  scalps,  putting  prisoners  in  irons,  and  giving  them  up  to 
be  the  victims  of  savage  barbarity."  He  was  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Quebec  in  1785,  and  died  as  Governor  of  Domin- 
ica in  1796. 


64         Essays  in  Western  History 

And  now  came  welcome  news  from  Gov-  j 
ernor  Patrick  Henry,  thanking  the  troops  for 
Illinois  a  ^^^^^  capture  of  Kaskaskia,  the  news  ^ 
Virginian  of  which  had  been  some  months  in 
<:oun  y  reaching  Virginia,  and  promising  them 
a  good  reward.^  As  a  direct  consequence  of 
their  victory,  and  the  taking  of  the  oath  of 
fealty  by  the  inhabitants,  Illinois  had  been  con- 
stituted by  the  legislature  (November,  1778) 
as  a  county  of  Virginia,  and  John  Todd,  an  old 
Kentucky  friend  of  Clark,  was  commissioned 
as  county  lieutenant.  This  appointment  was 
especially  welcomed  by  Clark,  for  he  did  not  \ 
enjoy  the  details  of  civil  administration  which 
had  thus  far  fallen  to  his  lot.  "The  Civil 
Departm'-  In  the  Illinois,"  he  wrote  to  Mason, 
"  had  heretofore  rob'd  me  of  too  much  of  my 
time  that  ought  to  be  spent  in  Military  reflec- 
tion, I  was  now  likely  to  be  relieved  by  Col? 
Jn  Todd  appointed  by  the  Government  for 
that  purpose;  I  was  anctious  for  his  Arrival 
&  happy  in  his  appointment." 

A  few  days  later,  some  of  the  long-expected 
reinforcements  arrived  from  Virginia  and  Ken- 
Beiated  tucky ;  but  not  more  than  half  of  the 
^nenis^^'     "umber  expected  by  Clark,  who  felt 

1  In  after  years,  they  received  i5o,cxx)  acres  of  land  in 
Ohio,  opposite  Louisville. 


George  Rogers  Clark  65 

compelled  by  this  fact  and  a  fresh  outbreak 
of  the  Indians  of  Ohio,  to  postpone  his  cher- 
ished expedition  against  Detroit.  After  estab- 
lishing small  garrisons  at  Vincennes,  Cahokia, 
and  Kaskaskia,  and  making  several  impor- 
tant treaties  with  the  Illinois  and  Wisconsin 
Indians,  he  introduced  Todd  to  the  people  at 
Kaskaskia,  the  county  seat,  on  the  twelfth  of 
May,  and  then  retired  to  his  principal  head- 
quarters at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  "  where  I 
Arrived  safe  on  the  20th  day  of  August." 

We  have  dwelt  in  such  detail  upon  Clark's 
romantic  expedition  for  the  conquest  of  the 
Results  Northwest,  that  we  must  close  with 
achieved  but  a  brief  summary  of  the  results 
achieved.  During  the  remainder  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary struggle,  the  Indian  tribes  between 
the  Wabash  and  the  Mississippi  were  in  large 
part  friendly  to  the  Americans.  The  red  men 
feared  Clark,  the  border  men  fairly  adored 
him,  and  the  French  were  awed  by  and  re- 
spected him  —  although  the  Creoles  were  at 
all  times  restive  under  his  stern  discipline  and 
his  cavalier  method  of  forcing  from  them  mili- 
tary supplies,  and  sighed  for  the  time  when 
France  might  once  more  control  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  He  was  admittedly  the  one  man  on 
the  frontier  who  by  the  exercise  of  his  per- 
S 


66         Essays  in  Western  History 

sonal  influence  could  keep  the  country  in 
order,  and  counteract  threatened  British  at- 
tempts to  regain  their  lost  hold.  His  fame 
spread  through  the  Southern  tribes,  and  the 
British  colony  at  Natchez  feared  lest  he  should 
direct  a  movement  against  them.  He  estab- 
lished Fort  Jefferson  on  the  Mississippi,  on  the 
border  line  between  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 
In  1780,  he  marshalled  the  men  of  Kentucky 
in  one  last  assault  against  the  hostile  tribes 
east  of  the  Wabash,  quelling  them  at  Chilli- 
cothe  and  Piqua,  thus  insuring  peace  for 
another  twelvemonth.  The  following  year, 
now  brigadier-general  of  the  Virginia  militia 
west  of  the  mountains,  he  was  in  the  mother 
colony,  and  at  the  head  of  a  hastily-organized 
force  of  two  hundred  and  forty  riflemen  am- 
buscaded a  party  of  English  troops  on  the 
James  River.  A  year  later,  he  led  forth  a 
thousand  tall  Kentucky  riflemen  to  ravage  the 
Indian  villages  on  the  Big  Miami,  in  retaliation 
for  the  disastrous  raid  made  that  summer  by 
Brant,  McKee,  Girty,  and  other  British-Indian 
leaders. 

All   this   while,   Clark   held   to  his  designs 

y,^^  upon  Detroit.     He   made   a  trip   to 

Detroit        Virginia  to  interest  public  men  in  his 

project        scheme,  and  greatly  alarmed  the  Eng- 


George  Rogers  Clark  67 

lish  by  his  preparations  for  the  proposed  ex- 
pedition; but  the  coast  colonies  were  to  the 
last  too  busy  with  their  own  affairs  to  grant 
him  the  necessary  assistance,  and,  much  to  his 
disappointment,  what  he  wished  to  make  the 
crowning  achievement  of  his  career  was  never 
carried  out. 

Although  Clark  was  of  ^reat  service  to  Ken- 
tucky and  Virginia,  in  keeping  in  order  Indians 
and  French  along  the  Ohio  frontier  during  the 
remainder  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  his  repu- 
ciark's  tation,  and  consequently  his  power, 
■power  j^^(j  reached  its  climax  with  the  cap- 

ivanes 

ture  of  Vmcennes.  After  a  tew  years, 
overcome  by  the  drink  habit  and  nettled  by 
what  he  considered  the  ingratitude  of  the  Re- 
public in  not  properly  rewarding  his  services, 
he  became  morose,  and  while  always  honored, 
was  able  to  exercise  comparatively  small  influ- 
ence among  the  younger  generation. 

Not  long  after  the  definitive  treaty  of  peace 
with  Great  Britain,  when  Clark  was  still  in 
touch  with  the  principal  men  of  the  East, 
Thomas  Jefferson  made  to  him  a  proposition 
Jefferson's  which  is  especially  interesting  at  the 
interesting  prcscnt  time  —  no  less  than  that  of 
heading  an  expedition  to  explore  a 
route  to  the  Pacific.    In  a  letter  from  Annapolis 


68         Essays  in  Western  History 

(December  4,  1783),^  Jefferson  writes  to  Clark, 
thanking  him  for  sending  certain  specimens  of 
"  shells  &  seeds,"  and  for  promising  "  as  many 
of  the  different  species  of  bones,  teeth  &  tucks  of 
the  Mammoth  as  can  now  be  found  "  —  for  the 
great  statesman,  then  in  retirement,  was  assidu- 
ously collecting  for  his  private  scientific  museum 
at  Monticello.  He  then  adds :  "  I  find  they 
have  subscribed  a  very  large  sum  of  money 
in  England  for  exploring  the  country  from 
the  Mississippi  to  California,  they  pretend  it  is 
only  to  promote  knolege.  I  am  afraid  they 
have  thoughts  of  colonising  into  that  quarter 
some  of  us  have  been  talking  here  in  a  feeble 
way  of  making  the  attempt  to  search  that  coun- 
try, but  I  doubt  wether  we  have  enough  of 
that  kind  of  spirit  to  raise  the  money,  how 
would  you  like  to  lead  such  a  party?  tho  I 
am  afraid  our  prospect  is  not  worth  asking  the 
question."  Nothing  came  of  this  offer;  but 
just  twenty  years  later  Clark's  younger  brother, 
William,  together  with  Meriwether  Lewis, 
started  under  Jefferson's  auspices  upon  a  simi- 
lar expedition,  which  won  for  them  imperish- 
able renown. 

In  1793,  Clark  imprudently  accepted  a  com- 
mission   as    major-general    from    Genet,    the 
1  The  original  is  in  the  Draper  MSS. 


V 


Of  THf 


WNfVE4^SITY 


or 


George  Rogers  Clark  69 


French  diplomatic  agent  at  Washington,  and 
sought  to  raise  a  filibustering  legion  in  the 
West,  to  overcome,  in  behalf  of  the  French,  the 
Clark  and  Spanish  settlements  on  the  Missis- 
Genet  sippi,^  in  coopcration  with  a  similar 

expedition  from  Georgia  against  the  Floridas. 
At  this  time  the  Kentuckians  were  much  con- 
cerned because  Spain,  which  held  the  mouth 
and  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  would  not 
allow  them  the  free  navigation  of  that  river,  so 
essential  to  the  marketing  of  their  crops ;  they 
were  incensed  at  the  United  States  government, 
which  appeared  to  neglect  these  and  other 
Western  interests.  Genet,  taking  advantage  of 
this  widespread  dissatisfaction  among  the  bor- 
derers, sought  their  aid  in  ousting  Spain  from 
the  mouth  of  the  river  and  along  the  Gulf,  and 
replacing  her  by  France.  The  intrigue  was 
ill  managed  by  the  blustering  Genet,  who  also 
had  insufficient  financial  resources,  and  the 
French  fleet  was  so  occupied  with  affairs  in 
San  Domingo  that  it  could  not  cooperate. 
Nevertheless  Clark,  despite  his  failing  powers, 
was  making  quite  effective  headway  in    Ken- 

1  See  the  admirably  full  treatment  of  this  episode,  by 
Prof.  F.  J.  Turner,  in  his  "  Correspondence  of  Clark  and 
Genet,"  first  report  of  the  Historical  MSS.  Commission, 
Araer.  Histor.  Ass'n  Report  for  1896,  pp.  930-1107. 


70         Essays  in  Western  History 

tucky,  where  he  had  two  hundred  men  under 
arms,  when  President  Washington,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  neutrality,  suddenly  put  a  stop  to  the 
conspiracy,  and  at  the  same  time  Genet  was 
recalled  by  his  government  Had  Genet  and 
Clark  successfully  carried  out  their  plans, 
France  would  have  regained  a  substantial  foot- 
hold in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  the  course 
of  Western  history  been  materially  altered. 
Washington  thus  rendered  to  the  West,  indeed 
to  the  Republic  at  large,  a  service  of  inesti- 
mable importance. 

Clark's  later  years  were  spent  in  comparative 
neglect  at  his  simple  home  in  the  then  small 
village  of  Clarksville,  in  view  of  Corn  Island, 
which  had  been  his  military  base  during  the 
time  when  he  won  the  Northwest  for 
laieryears  ^^  American  cause.  The  story  is 
told,  although  not  well  established, 
that  when  commissioners  sought  him  in  his  old 
age,  bearing  a  richly  ornamented  sword  voted 
him  by  the  State  of  Virginia,  he  received  the 
compliments  of  his  visitors  in  sullen  silence. 
Then  bursting  forth  in  rage,  he  is  said  to  have 
broken  the  weapon  with  his  crutch,  crying: 
"  When  Virginia  needed  a  sword,  I  gave  her 
one.  She  sends  me  now  a  toy.  I  want  bread  !  " 
Dying  in  1818  at  his  sister's  home  near  Louis- 


George  Rogers  Clark  7 1 

ville,  his  ashes  He  at  Cave  Hill  cemetery,  in 
that  city,  where  he  is  accounted  the  most 
honored  of  Kentucky's  dead. 

It  is  difficult  to  overestimate  the  importance 

of  Clark's   conquest.     Lord    Dunmore's   War 

was  one  step  :  it  extended  Virginia's 

Importance  *-  J  ° 

of  the  "  sphere    of  influence  "  westward   to 

conquest  ^j^^  Muskiugum.  But  Clark,  of  his 
own  motion  and  largely  at  the  expense  of  his 
private  fortune,  chiefly  supporting  his  soldiers 
on  the  country  and  paying  them  from  its 
plunder,  in  a  series  of  brilliant  achievements 
captured  the  Southern  key-points  of  the  great 
Northwest,  and  held  them  with  military  force 
and  his  strong  personal  influence  until  the 
treaty  of  peace  with  England  in   1783. 

The  English  peace  commissioners  at  first 
claimed  the  Northwest  as  a  part  of  Canada; 
Effect  on  ^ut  throughout  the  protracted  nego- 
the  treaty  tiatious  Jay  and  Franklin  persisted 
in  demanding  the  country  which 
Clark  had  so  gallantly  won  and  was  still 
holding.  What  appears  to  have  had  more 
effect  upon  the  English  treaty  commissioners 
than  the  fact  of  military  occupancy,  was  Frank- 
lin's argument  that  unless  room  for  growth 
were  given  the  United  States,  a  permanent 
peace  could  not  be  expected  between  the  two 


72         Essays  in  Western  History 

countries  —  that  the  tide  of  emigration  west- 
ward over  the  Alleghanies  could  not  be 
stemmed ;  that  the  rough,  masterful  borderers 
could  not  be  restrained  from  intrenching  on 
the  English  wilderness,  and  a  never-ending 
frontier  fight,  disastrous  to  all  concerned, 
would  be  inevitable.  The  situation  was  ad- 
mitted. Later,  Lord  Shelburne,  who  was 
chiefly  responsible  for  yielding  this  point, 
reinforced  his  position  by  maintaining  in  Parlia- 
ment that  after  all  the  fur-trade  of  the  North- 
west was  not  worth  fighting  for,  and  the  fur-trade 
was  all  that  Englishmen  wished  of  that  vast 
area.  Nevertheless,  Jay  and  Franklin  could 
have  found  no  footing  for  their  contention,  had 
Clark  not  been  in  actual  possession  of  the 
country.  It  certainly  was  a  prime  factor  in  the 
situation. 

Aside  from  this,  we  are  indebted  to  George 
Rogers  Clark  for  a  series  of  military  achieve- 
ments nowhere,  all  conditions  considered, 
excelled  in  the  proud  annals  of  American 
heroism ;  and  for  a  glowing  inspiration  to 
patriotic  endeavor,  that  will  never  die  so  long 
as  our  youth  are  instructed  in  the  history  of 
the  land. 


II 


THE  DIVISION   OF   THE   NORTHWEST 
INTO   STATES 


II 


THE   DIVISION   OF   THE   NORTHWEST 
INTO    STATES 

WASHINGTON,  ''first  in  war,  first  in 
peace,  and  first  in  the  Jiearts  of  his 
countrymen,"  was  first  al^o  in  making  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  boundary 4mes  of  Northwestern 
Was/iins-  States.  September  7,  1783,  we  find 
ion's  sug-  him  writing  to  James  Duane,  then  a 
ges  ton  member  of  Congress  from  New  York, 
regarding  the  future  of  the  country  beyond  the 
Ohio.^  After  giving  some  wise  suggestions  as 
to  the  management  of  both  Indians  and  whites 
in  that  vast  region,  he  declares  that  the  time  is 
ripe  for  the  blocking  out  of  a  State  there.  The 
veteran  surveyor  sayb.  '*  From  the  mouth  of 
the  Great  Miami  River,  w''''  empties  into  the 
Ohio,  to  its  confluence  with  the  Mad  River, 
thence  by  a  Line  to  the  Miami  fort  and  Village 
on    the  other  Miami  River,  w^*"    empties  into 

1  Ford's  Writijigs  of  Washington,  x.,  pp.  310,  311. 


76         Essays  in  Western  History 

Lake  Erie,  and  Thence  by  a  Line  to  include  the 
Settlement  of  Detroit,  would,  with  Lake  Erie 
to  the  noward,  Pensa.  to  the  eastwd.,  and  the 
Ohio  to  the  soward,  form  a  governm*  sufficiently 
extensive  to  fulfil  all  the  public  engagements, 
and  to  receive  moreover  a  large  population 
by  emigrants."  He  continues  :  "  Were  it  not 
for  the  purpose  of  comprehending  the  Settle- 
ment of  Detroit  within  the  Jurisd"  of  the  new 
GovernmS  a  more  compact  and  better  shaped 
district  for  a  State  would  be,  for  the  hne  to 
proceed  from  the  Miami  Fort  and  Village 
along  the  River  of  that  name  to  Lake  Erie ; 
leaving  in  that  case  the  settlement  of  Detroit, 
and  all  the  Territory  no.  of  the  Rivers  Miami 
and  St.  Joseph's  between  the  Lakes  Erie,  St. 
Clair,  Huron,  and  Michigan,  to  form  hereafter 
another  State  equally  large,  compact,  and 
water-bounded." 

Thus  did  Washington,  with  that  clear-head- 
edness and  far-sightedness  which  caused  him 
in  practical  matters  like  this  to  outrank  most 
Americans  of  his  day,  roughly  map  out  the 
present  States  of  Ohio  and  Michigan.  Five 
weeks  later  (October  15),  Congress  adopted 
this  second  suggestion  almost  literally,  in  estab- 
lishing a  region  for  colonization  north  of  the 
Ohio,  into  which  no  red  man  was  thereafter  to 


Division  of  the  Northwest  "jj 

be  allowed  a  foothold  —  if  the  law  could  stop 
him.^ 

Early   the    following    March,    Congress    in- 
structed a  committee  of  which  Thomas  Jeffer- 


7 

r^ 

^ 

n 

i 

^ 

a] 

J 

tCTROPOTAMW            1 

\lLLINOIA 

S      < 

^RATOGA 

>^SHINaTOM  J 

'S  PlAN,l7a'<^. 

Jefferson's   ^on  was  chairman,  to  fashion  a  plan 
plan  of  government  for  the  entire  North- 

west,—  or,  as  it  was  then  called,  the  Western 

1  Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  i.,  p.  258.     Duane  was  chair- 
man of  the  committee  reporting  these  resolutions. 


yS         Essays  in  Western  History 

Territory,  —  which  had  now  become  public 
domain  through  the  surrender  of  the  land 
claims  of  those  States  which  had  hitherto 
stoutly  held  that  they  owned  everything  west 
of  their  coast  lines,  as  far  as  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  To  Jefferson  is  to  be  given  the  credit 
for  drafting  the  report  of  this  committee,  which 
was  first  taken  up  by  Congress  on  the  nine- 
teenth of  April,  and  after  some  amendment 
adopted  on  the  twenty-third.  The  original 
drafts  has  come  down  to  us  in  history,  famous, 
among  other  features,  for  Jefferson's  proposi- 
tion to  divide  the  Northwest,  on  parallels  of 
latitude,  into  ten  States,  most  of  them  to  bear 
fantastic  names  which  smack  of  the  classical 
revival  then  deeply  affecting  American  thought: 
Sylvania,  Michigania,  Assenisipia,Illinoia,  Poly- 
potamia,  Chersonesus,  Metropotamia,  Saratoga, 
Pelisipia,  and  Washington.  While  Congress 
practically  accepted  his  scheme  of  territorial 
division,  each  section  was  wisely  left  to  choose 
its  own  title  when  it  should  enter  the  Union.^ 
These    resolutions    were  in    force  until   the 

1  In  the  handwriting  of  Jefferson,  and  now  preserved  at 
Washington,  in  the  archives  of  the  Department  of  State. 

2  See  Randall's  Life  of  Jefferson,  i.,  pp.  397,  398,  for  full 
text  of  the  resolutions  as  adopted.  They  are  also  given  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  xi.,  p.  61. 


Division  of  the  Northwest  79 

Congress  of  the  Confederation,  in  session  at 
Ordinance  Philadelphia,  adopted  July  13,  1787, 
of  1787  «  ^j^  ordinance  for  the  government 
of  the  Territory  of  the  United  States  north- 


west of  the  river  Ohio."  What  thereafter 
was  familiarly  known  as  the  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory lay  west  of  Pennsylvania  and  north  and 
west  of  the  Ohio  River.  Its  western  limit  was 
the  Mississippi  River,  which  had  been  estab- 


8o         Essays  in  Western  History 

lished  by  the  treaty  of  Paris  (February  lo, 
1763)  as  the  boundary  between  the  British 
possessions  and  the  French  province  of 
Louisiana,  and  confirmed  as  the  western 
boundary  of  the  United  States  by  our  first 
treaty  with  Great  Britain  (September  3,  1783); 
the  northern  limit  was  the  line  between  Brit- 
ish America  and  the  United  States.  The  land 
embraced  in  this  vast  tract  was,  in  great  part, 
the  Virginia  cession,  made  in  1784;  to  the 
north  of  that  lay  the  strip  ceded  by  Connecticut 
in  1 786  and  1 8cx) ;  farther  north,  the  Massa- 
chusetts cession  of  1785;  while  the  territory 
north  of  latitude  43°  43'  12''  had  been  acquired 
from  Great  Britain  in  1783.^ 

The  fifth  article  of  the  Ordinance  was  as 
follows :  '*  There  shall  be  formed  in  the  said 
The  famous  territory  not  less  than  three  nor 
boundary  more  than  five  States;  and  the 
boundaries  of  the  States,  as  soon 
as  Virginia  shall  alter  her  act  of  cession  and 
consent  to  the  same,^  shall  become  fixed  and 
established  as  follows,  to  wit :  The  Western 
State,  in  the  said  territory,  shall  be  bounded 
by  the  Mississippi,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Wabash 
rivers;  a  direct  line  drawn  from  the  Wabash 

1  See  map  in  McMaster's  Hist.  People  U.  6'.,  ii. 

2  Which  she  did  in  1788. 


Division  of  the  Northwest         8 1 

and  Post  Vincents  [Vincennes,  Indiana],  due 
north,  to  the  territorial  line  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada ;  and  by  the  said  territorial 
line  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  and  Mississippi. 
The  middle  State  shall  be  bounded  by  the 
said  direct  line,  the  Wabash  from  Post  Vin- 
cents to  the  Ohio,  by  the  Ohio,  by  a  direct 
line  drawn  due  north  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Great  Miami  to  the  said  territorial  line,  and  by 
the  said  territorial  line.  The  Eastern  State 
shall  be  bounded  by  the  last-mentioned  direct 
line,  the  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  said  ter- 
ritorial line :  Providedy  however^  And  it  is 
further  understood  and  declared,  that  the 
boundaries  of  these  three  States  shall  be  sub- 
ject so  far  to  be  altered,  that,  if  congress  shall 
hereafter  find  it  expedient,  they  shall  have  au- 
thority to  form  one  or  two  States  in  that  part 
of  the  said  territory  which  lies  north  of  an 
east  and  west  line  drawn  through  the  southerly 
bend  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan.  And  when- 
ever any  of  the  said  States  shall  have  sixty 
thousand  free  inhabitants  therein,  such  State 
shall  be  admitted,  by  its  delegates,  into  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  on  an  equal 
footing  with  the  original  States,  in  all  respects 
whatever." 

In  order  to  give  the  Ordinance  an  assurance 
6 


82         Essays  in  Western  History 

of  stability,  it  was  solemnly  provided,  in  section 
14  of  the  preamble,  that:  ''The  following 
articles  shall  be  considered  as  articles  of  com- 
pact, between  the  original  States  and  the 
people  and  States  in  the  said  Territory,  and 
forever  remain  unalterable y  unless  by  common 
consentr  It  will  be  interesting  to  see  how 
Congress  finally  divided  the  Old  Northwest 
into  States;  and  why  it  was  that  while  five 
commonwealths  were  formed  therefrom  as  pro- 
vided by  the  Ordinance,  in  the  end  none  of 
them  was  bounded  exactly  as  stipulated  in 
the  famous  fifth  article. 

Twelve  years  later,^  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  which  had  succeeded  the  Con- 
^     .      ^  gress  of  the  Confederation,  made  its 

Erection  of    ° 

Indiana  first  division  of  the  Northwest  Terri- 
Territory  ^^^.^ 2  j^e  act  provided:  ''That 
from  and  after  the  fourth  day  of  July  next,  all 
that  part  of  the  Territory  of  the  United  States 
northwest  of  the  Ohio  River  which  lies  to  the 
westward  of  a  line  beginning  at  the  Ohio,  oppo- 
site to  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky  River,  and 
running  thence  to  Fort  Recovery   [near  the 

1  Act  approved  May  7,  1800.  The  Ordinance  itself  had 
been  confirmed  by  act  of  Congress  approved  August  7, 17S9. 

2  See  St.  Clair's  letter  to  Harrison,  on  the  division  of  the 
Northwest  Territory,  St.  Clair  Papers,  ii.,  pp.  489,  490. 


Divisio7i  of  the  Northvjest  83 

present  Greenville,  Ohio],  and  thence  north  until 
it  shall  intersect  the  territorial  line  between 
the  United  States  and  Canada,  shall,  for  the 
purposes  of  temporary  government,  constitute  a 


separate  Territory,  and  be  called  the  Indiana 
Territory."  The  country  east  of  this  line  was 
still  to  be  called  the  Northwest  Territory,  with 
its  seat  of  government  at  Chillicothe;  while 
Vincennes  was  to  be  the  seat  of  government 


84         Es&ays  in  Western  History 

for  Indiana  Territory.  That  portion  of  the 
line  running  from  the  point  on  the  Ohio,  oppo- 
site the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky,  northeastward 
to  Fort  Recovery,  was  designed  to  be  but  a 
temporary  boundary,  it  being  one  of  the  Hnes 
established  between  the  white  settlements  and 
the  Indians,  by  the  treaty  of  Greenville,  July 
30,  1795- 

The  act  of  Congress  approved  April  30,  1802, 
enabling  '*  the  people  of  the  eastern  division  " 
Admission  of  the  Northwest  Territory  (Ohio)  to 
of  Ohio  (jj-aft  a  State  constitution,  obliged 
them  to  accept  as  their  northern  boundary  "  an 
east  and  west  line  drawn  through  the  southerly 
extreme  of  Lake  Michigan,"  in  accordance 
with  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  original  ordi- 
nance. In  the  State  constitutional  convention, 
held  at  Chillicothe  in  November  that  year,  this 
line  had,  without  a  murmur,  been  acceded  to  in 
committee,  when  suddenly  it  came  to  the  ears 
of  the  members  that  an  experienced  trapper, 
then  in  the  village,  claimed  for  Lake  Michigan 
a  more  southerly  head  than  had  been  given  to 
it  by  the  majority  of  the  map-makers. 

It  appears  that  the  committee  of  Congress 
which  drafted  the  Ordinance  of  1787  obtained 
from  the  Department  of  State  a  copy  of 
Mitchell's  map,  which  had  been  published  in 


Division  of  the  Northwest  85 

1755  by  the  British  Lords  Commissioners  for 
Trade  and  Plantations  in  America.  This  placed 
the  southern  bend  of  Lake  Michigan  at  42°  20 '. 
A  pencilled  line  thereon,  evidently  made  by 
a  member  of  the  committee,  passes  due  east 
from  the  bend  and  intersects  the  international 
line  at  a  point  between  River  Raisin  and 
Detroit.  It  was  this  chart  which  the  trapper 
claimed  to  be  incorrect.^  The  Chillicothe  con- 
vention became  alarmed  at  the  report,  and 
made  haste  to  attach  a  proviso  to  the  boundary 
article,  as  follows :  "  Provided  always,  and  it  is 
hereby  fully  wider  stood  and  declared  by  this  con- 
ventioUy  That  if  the  southerly  bend  or  extreme 
of  Lake  Michigan  should  extend  so  far  south, 
that  a  line  drawn  due  east  from  it  should  not 
intersect  Lake  Erie,  or  if  it  should  intersect  the 
said  Lake  Erie  east  of  the  mouth  of  the  Miami 
River  of  the  lake,  then,  and  in  that  case,  with 
the  assent  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
the  northern  boundary  of  this  State  shall  be 

1  Burnet's  Notes  on  Northwest  Territory  (1847),  p.  360. 
Mitchell's  error  was  perpetuated  in  later  maps  by  other  car- 
tographers, notably  in  Pownall's  chart  (1779).  Had  the 
library  been  reasonably  well  equipped,  the  committee  might 
have  had  access  to  one  published  by  Thomas  Ilutchins 
in  1778,  nine  years  before  the  passage  of  the  Ordinance. 
Hutchins  placed  the  southern  bend  about  where  it  was 
afterwards  proved  to  be  by  Talcott's  survey  —  41°  37'  07.9''. 


86         Essays  in  Western  History 

established  by,  and  extending  to,  a  direct  line, 
running  from  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake 
Michigan  to  the  most  northerly  cape  of  the 
Miami  bay,"  etc. 

"  The  eastern  division "  of  the  Northwest 
Territory,  now  organized  under  the  name  of 
the  State  of  Ohio,  was  formally  admitted  as 
such  to  the  Union,  by  act  approved  February 
19,  1803.  Nothing  was  said  in  the  recognition 
act  relative  to  the  boundary ;  it  was  taken  for 
granted  by  the  Ohio  people  that  the  proviso 
was  accepted. 

On  the  eleventh  of  January,  1805,  an  act  of 
Congress  was  approved,  erecting  the  Terri- 
Ereciion  of  *°^^  °^  Michigan  out  of  **  all  that 
Michigan  part  of  the  Indiana  Territory  which 
Territory  jj^^  north  of  a  line  drawn  east  /rom 
the  southerly  bend  or  extreme,  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan, until  it  shall  intersect  Lake  Erie,  and 
east  of  a  line  drawn  from  the  said  southerly 
bend  through  the  middle  of  said  lake  to  its 
northern  extremity,  and  thence  due  north  to 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  United  States." 
This  was,  in  short,  the  present  Southern  Pen- 
insula of  Michigan,  with  a  southern  boundary 
as  established  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  to- 
gether with  that  portion  of  the  upper  penin- 
sula lying  east  of  the  meridian  of  Mackinac. 


Division  of  tJu  Northwest         87 

Congress  had  admitted  Ohio  to  the  Union 
with  a  tacit  recognition  of  the  northern  bound- 
ary laid  down  in  her  constitutional  proviso; 
yet  so  little  thought  had   been   given  to  the 


fc- 

i*. 

1 

|fc^ 

^ 

^^^^^^^^M 

% 

^^^P 

TV.      ^ 

'^^o^^x^r^^ rvvk  ia  lon^ 

matter,  and  geographical  knowledge  of  the 
West  was  still  so  vague,  that  this  circumstance 
had  been  overlooked,  and  Michigan  Territory 
was  allowed  a  southern  limit  which,  while  in 
strict  accordance  with  the  Ordinance,  seriously 


88 


Essays  in  Western  History 


overlapped  the  territory  assigned  to  Ohio.  Thus, 
when,  in  later  years,  the  location  of  the  south- 
erly bend  of  Lake  Michigan  was  determined,  a 
serious  boundary  dispute  arose,  Michigan  claim- 


ing the  Ordinance  as  a  compact  which  could 
not  be  broken  by  Congress  without  common 
consent;  while  Ohio  tenaciously  clung  to  the 
strip  of  country  which  the  constitution-makers 
at  Chillicothe  had  in  the  eleventh  hour  secured 


Division  of  the  Northwest         89 

for  her.  The  wedge-shaped  strip  in  dispute 
averaged  six  miles  in  width,  across  Ohio,  em- 
braced some  four  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
square  miles,  and  included  the  lake-port  of 
Toledo  and  the  mouth  of  the  Maumee  River, 
the  possession  of  which  was  deemed  well  worth 
quarrelling  over.  Congress  passed  an  act  for 
determining  the  boundary  (May  20,  18 12), 
but  owing  to  trouble  with  Great  Britain  the 
lines  were  not  run  until  18 18,  and  then  not 
satisfactorily.  July  14,  1832,  another  act  of 
Congress  for  the  settlement  of  the  northern 
limit  of  Ohio  was  passed ;  and  as  a  result  of 
extensive  observations  by  Captain  A.  Talcott 
of  the  United  States  Engineer  Corps,  that  offi- 
cer was  able  to  report  in  detail,  in  January, 
1834,  and  again  in  November,  1835,^  to  the  effect 
that  the  southern  bend  of  Lake  Michigan  is  in 
latitude  41°  37'  07.9",  while  the  north  cape 
of  Maumee  Bay  is  in  41°  44'  02.4'^ 

Michigan  had  in  1834  begun  to  urge  her 
claims  to  statehood,  insisting  on  the  south- 
ern boundary  prescribed  for  the  fourth  and 
... , .  fifth  States  by  the   ordinance.     Vir- 

Mtchtgan-  ^ 

Ohio  ginia,    whose    consent    as   the   chief 

boundary  land-givcr  had  been  necessary  to  the 
legalizing  of  that  document,  was  importuned 

1  Senate  Docs.,  No.  i,  24th  Cong.,  ist  sess.,  vol.  i.,  p.  203. 


90         Essays  in  Western  History 

by  Governor  Mason  to  intercede  in  behalf  of 
the  peninsula  Territory.  The  officials  of  the 
Old  Dominion  were  in  accord  with  the  move- 
ment, but  this  fact  failed  to  produce  any  effect 
on  Congress,  for  the  political  sympathy  of  the 
actual  State  of  Ohio  was  just  then  more  impor- 
tant to  the  dominant  party  than  the  possible 
good-will  of  the  projected  State  of  Michigan. 

Without  waiting  for  an  enabling  act,  a  con- 
vention held  at  Detroit  in  May  and  June,  1835, 
adopted  a  State  constitution  for  submission  to 
Congress,  demanding  entry  into  the  Union 
**  in  conformity  to  the  fifth  article  of  the  ordi- 
nance "  of  1787  —  of  course  the  boundaries 
sought  being  those  established  by  that  article. 
During  the  summer  there  were  popular  dis- 
turbances in  the  disputed  territory,  and  some 
gunpowder  harmlessly  wasted.  In  December, 
President  Jackson  in  a  special  message  laid 
the  matter  before  Congress.  Congress  quietly 
determined  to  "  arbitrate  "  the  quarrel  by  giv- 
ing to  Ohio  the  disputed  tract,  and  offering 
Michigan,  by  way  of  partial  recompense,  the 
whole  of  what  is  to-day  her  Upper  Peninsula.^ 
Michigan,  however,  did  not  want  the  sup- 
posedly barren  and  worthless  country  to  her 
northwest,  protested  long  and  loud  against 
1  Act  approved  June  15,  1836. 


Division  of  the  Northwest  9 1 

what  she  deemed  to  be  an  outrage,  and  de- 
clared that  she  had  no  community  of  interest 
with  the  northern  peninsula,  being  for  half  of 
the  year  separated  from  it  by  insurmountable 
natural  barriers.  Moreover,  she  asserted,  it 
rightfully  belonged  to  the  fifth  State  to  be 
formed  out  of  the  Northwest  Territory.  But 
Congress  persisted  in  making  this  settlement 
of  the  quarrel  one  of  the  conditions  precedent 
to  the  admission  of  Michigan  into  the  Union. 
In  September,  1836,  a  State  convention,  called 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  deciding  the  question, 
rejected  the  proposition  on  the  ground  that 
Congress  had  no  right,  according  to  the  terms 
of  the  Ordinance,  to  annex  such  a  condition. 
A  second  convention,  however,  approved  of  it 
(December  15),  and  Congress  promptly  ac- 
cepted this  decision  as  final.^  Thus  Michigan 
came  into  the  sisterhood  of  States,  January 
26,  1837,  "^vith  the  territorial  limits  which  she 
to-day  possesses.^ 

In  following  the  fortunes  of  Michigan,  we 
have  necessarily  run  somewhat  ahead  of  our 
story.     When  Michigan  Territory  was  erected 

1  Hough's  Amer.  Const.,  i,,  p.  663. 

2  The  arguments  on  the  Ohio-Michigan  claims  will  be 
found  at  length  in  Senate  Docs.,  No.  211,  vol.  iii.,  1835-36, 
and  Reports  of  Corns.,  No.  380,  vol.  ii.,  1835-36. 


92         Essays  in  Western  History 


in  1805,  Indiana  Territory  had  been  left  with 
the  Mississippi  River  as  its  western  border,  the 
Ohio  as  its  southern,  the  international  bound- 
ary  and   the   south   line    of  Michigan    as  its 


rEB.3, 1809. 


northern,  while  its  eastern  limits  were  the  west 
line  of  Ohio,  the  middle  of  Lake  Michigan,  and 
the  meridian  of  Mackinac.  This  included  the 
present  States  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wisconsin, 
and  the  greater  part  of  Michigan's  Upper 
Peninsula. 


Division  of  the  Northwest         93 

The  next  division  was  ordained  by  act  of 
Congress  approved  February  3,  1809,  when 
Erection  of  ^^^^  portion  of  Indiana  Territory 
Illinois  lying  west  of  the  lower  Wabash  River 
crriory  ^^^  ^^  meridian  of  Vincennes  was 
erected  into  the  Territory  of  Illinois.  Indiana 
was  thus  left  with  her  present  boundaries, 
except  that  on  the  south  side  she  owned  a 
funnel-shaped  strip  of  water  and  of  land  just 
west  of  the  middle  of  Lake  Michigan,  between 
the  Vincennes  meridian  and  the  then  western 
boundary  of  Michigan  Territory  —  what  is  now, 
roughly  speaking,  the  County  of  Door,  in  Wis- 
consin, together  with  the  Counties  of  Delta, 
Alger,  and  Schoolcraft,  and  the  greater  part  of 
Chippewa  and  Mackinac,  in  Michigan. 

When  Indiana  was  admitted  to  the  Union 
(act  approved  April  19,  18 16),  her  northern 
boundary  was  established  by  Congress  on  a 
line  running  due  east  of  a  point  in  the  middle 
of  Lake  Michigan  ten  miles  north  of  the  south- 
ern extreme  of  the  lake.  This  was  recognized 
as  a  distinct  violation  of  the  great  Ordinance ; 
but  the  excuse  was  offered  that  Indiana  must 
be  given  a  share  of  the  lake  coast,  and  as  there 
were  then  no  important  harbors  or  towns  in- 
volved, Michigan  made  no  serious  objection  to 
this  particular  encroachment  on  her  territory. 


94         Essays  in  Western  History 

The  contraction  of  the  northern  bounds  of 
Indiana,  however,  left  unclaimed  the  before- 
No  Mail's  "mentioned  strip  of  water  in  Lake 
Land  Michigan    and  the    generous  belt  of 


1 

1 

1 

*""^B 

h^ 

SSgg^tMNnaTmrmr 

* 

APRIL 

18, 1818. 

peninsula  country  to  the  north.  Literally  it 
was  **  No  Man's  Land."  States  and  Territories 
had  been  formed  around  it,  but  these  semi- 
insulated  sections  of  ore  and  pine  lands  were 
claimed  by  none,  such  was  the  prevalent  igno* 


I 


Division  of  the  Northwest  95 

ranee   concerning   the   public   domain  in  the 
then  far  Northwest. 

The  act  of  April  i%,  1818,  enabling  Illinois 
to  become  a  State,  abridged  her  territory  to  its 
present  limits,  and  gave  to  Michigan  "  all  that 
part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  lying 
north  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  which  was 
included  in  the  former  Indiana  Territory,  to- 
gether with  that  part  of  the  Illinois  Territory 
which  is  situated  north  of  and  not  included 
within  the  boundaries  prescribed  by  this  act." 
By  this  statute,  what  we  may  call  No  Man's 
Land,  and  all  of  the  Northwest  Territory  west 
of  it,  were  "  for  temporary  purposes  only  "  as- 
signed to  Michigan  Territory,  which  now  em- 
braced all  the  country  between  the  Mississippi 
River  and  Lakes  Erie,  St.  Clair,  and  Huron, 
and  lying  north  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois. 
Illinois' s  '^^^  northern  boundary  of  Illinois 
northern  was  fixcd  at  42°  30^  which  is  over 
oun  ary  gjxty-one  milcs  north  of  the  southern 
bend  of  Lake  Michigan,  the  southern  boundary 
prescribed  by  the  Ordinance  for  the  fourth  and 
fifth  States  to  be  formed  out  of  the  old  North- 
west Territory.  Thus  were  the  express  terms 
of  the  Ordinance,  which  had  been  declared  to 
be  "  forever  unalterable  except  by  common 
consent,"  again  violated,  without  so  much  as 


96         Essays  in  Western  History 

saying  "  by  your  leave "  to  the  settlers  Vv^est 
of  Lake  Michigan  who  lived  north  of  42°  30'. 
What  was  afterwards  Wisconsin  was  thereby 
deprived,  through  the  shrewd  manipulation  of 
Nathaniel  Pope,  Illinois's  delegate  in  Congress 
at  that  time,  of  eight  thousand  five  hundred 
square  miles  of  rich  agricultural  and  mining 
country  and  numerous  lake-ports.  Pope  spe- 
ciously argued  that  Illinois  must  become  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  growing  commerce 
of  the  Northern  lakes,  or  else  she  would  be  led, 
from  her  commercial  relations  upon  the  great 
rivers  trending  to  the  South,  to  join  a  Southern 
confederacy  in  case  the  Union  were  disrupted.^ 
An  act  of  Congress  approved  June  28,  1834, 
added  to  the  Territory  of  Michigan,  "  for  tem- 
Michigan  PO^ary  purposes,"  the  lands  lying 
spreads  north  of  the  State  of  Missouri  and 
westward  }q^<^^^q^  )^q  Mississippi  River  on  the 
east  and  the  Missouri  and  White  Earth  ^  rivers 
on  the  west,  which  had  been  acquired  from 
France  in   1803   as    a    part   of  the    Louisiana 

1  Annals  of  Congress^  1818,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1677 ;  Ford's  Hist, 
of  III.,  p.  22  ;  Davidson  and  Struve's  Hist,  of  III.,  p.  295. 

2  A  small  northern  tributary  of  the  Missouri  having  its 
source  some  thirty  miles  south  of  the  international  bound- 
ary; it  empties  into  the  Missouri  near  the  western  boundary 
of  Mountraiile  County,  Dakota,  about  eighty-five  miles  west 
of  the  meridian  of  Bismarck. 


li 


Division  of  the  Northwest  97 

Purchase.^  Michigan  Territory  now  extended, 
therefore,  from  Detroit  westward  to  a  point 
eighty-five  miles  northwest  of  the  site  of  the 
present  city  of  Bismarck,  Dakota. 

The  people  west  of  Lake  Michigan  had  long 
been  desirous  of  having  a  territorial  govern- 
ment of  their  own.     The  seat  of  gov- 

Dissatisfac-  " 

tion  west  of  cmment  of  Michigan  Territory  was  at 
Lake  Mtchi- Y)Q\^xo\ty  SIX  hundred  miles  from  the 

gan 

centre  of  settlement  west  of  the  lake, 
and  during  half  of  the  year  nearly  inaccessible 
therefrom ;  the  laws  of  Michigan  were  practi- 
cally dead-letters  among  them ;  civil  machinery 
west  of  the  lake  was  chiefly  conspicuous  for  its 
absence,  and  there  were  commercial  as  well  as 
sectional  and  political  jealousies  between  the 
people  on  either  side  of  the  great  inland  sea. 

As  early  as  1824,  James  Duane  Doty,  a 
federal  judge  living  at  Green  Bay,  had  inter- 

1  The  clause  of  this  act  relating  to  area  is  as  follows  :  "  All 
that  part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  bounded  on 
the  east  by  the  Mississippi  river,  on  the  south  by  the  state 
of  Missouri  and  a  line  drawn  due  west  from  the  northwest 
corner  of  said  state  [then  on  the  meridian  of  Kansas  City]  to 
the  Missouri  river;  on  the  southwest  and  west  by  the  Mis- 
souri river  and  the  White  Earth  river,  falling  into  the  same; 
and  on  the  north  by  the  northern  boundary  of  the  United 
States,  shall  be,  and  hereby  is,  for  the  purpose  of  temporary 
government,  attached  to  and  made  part  of  the  Territory  of 
Michigan." 

7 


98         Essays  in  Western  History 

ested  Senator  Thomas  H.  Benton  in  a  pro- 
jected **  Territory  of  Chippewau."  The  bill^ 
was  drawn  by  Doty  and  forwarded  to  Benton 
in  November  of  that  year,  together  with  a  peti- 
tion for  its  passage  signed  by  the  inhabitants 
of  the  proposed  Territory.     It  is  interesting  to 


.-,-  MICHIGAN, 

note  the  ideas  prevalent  among  them  at  that 
time  concerning  the  proper  limits  of  what  is 
now  Wisconsin.  The  boundaries  sought  by 
the  Doty  bill  were:  "All  that  part  of  the 
Michigan  Territory  included  within  the  follow- 
ing boundaries,  that  is  to  say :.  On  the  south  by 

1  Doty  MSS.,  in  the  possession  of  the  Wisconsin  Histori- 
cal Society. 


Division  of  the  Northwest  99 

the  northern  boundary  line  of  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois, crossing  the  Mississippi  River  at  the  head 
of  Rock  Island,  and  by  the  northern  boundary 
line  of  the  State  of  Missouri ;  on  the  west  by 
the  Missouri  River ;  on  the  north  by  the  bound- 
ary line  of  the  United  States  to  the  southern 
extremity  of  Drummond's  Island  at  the  mouth 
of  the  River  St.  Mary,  and  thence  by  a  line 
running  from  said  island  to  the  southern  ex- 
tremity of  Bois  Blanc  Island  in  Lake  Huron, 
thence  by  a  line  equally  distant  from  the  island 
and  main  land  to  the  centre  of  the  straits  be- 
tween Lakes  Michigan  and  Huron,  and  thence 
up  the  middle  of  the  said  straits  and  Lake  Michi- 
gan to  the  northeastern  corner  of  the  State  of 
Illinois." 

Throughout  the  protracted  agitation  incident 
to  this  project,  Judge  Doty  wrote  numerous 
Protracted  letters  to  influential  congressmen,  ex- 
agitation  planatory  of  the  situation.  In  1827, 
we  find  him  willing  to  call  the  proposed  new 
Territory  "  Wiskonsin"  in  honor  of  its  princi- 
pal river.  In  February,  1828,  the  house  com- 
mittee on  territories  was  committed  to  its  favor, 
but  it  soon  received  a  serious  set-back  from  a 
memorial  sent  in  by  the  people  of  Detroit,  who 
strenuously  objected  to  surrendering  to  the 
proposed    new  territory   that  portion  of  their 


lOO       Essays  in  Western  History 

Upper  Peninsula  which  lay  to  the  east  of 
the  Mackinac  meridian.^  The  memorialists 
showed  that  they  were  holding  active  com- 
mercial relations  with  the  settlers  around  the 
straits  of  Mackinac,  to  whom  they  were  also 
closely  allied,  socially  and  politically. 


L.VIEUXDC8ERT 
OMONCC  n. 


IX- 


WISCONSIN, 

APRtL  20^  1836. 


In  1830,  the  effort  was  renewed  by  Doty  in 
a  bill  to  establish  the  Territory  of  Huron,  with 
the  same  boundaries  as  those  prescribed  for 
Chippewau.^     Four   years   later,   after  several 

1  Michigan  Herald^  Detroit,  February,  1828. 

2  In  Washburne's  Edwards  Papers  (pp.  439,  440)  there  is 
a  letter  from  Hooper  Warren,  editor  of  the  Galena  Gazette^ 
to  Gov.  Ninian  Edwards,  of  Illinois,  dated  Galena,  October 
6,  1829,  in  which  ha  thus  refers  to  letters  on  the  boundary 


Division  of  the  Northwest       loi 

sessions  of  lobbying,  a  substitute  was  offered, 
entitled  "  A  bill  establishing  the  territorial 
government    of  Wisconsin,"    with   boundaries 

question  written  by  Doty  to  that  paper :  "  I  hope  you  have 
read  the  numbers  of  our  Green  Bay  correspondent.  He  is 
Judge  Doty.  You  are  among  others  to  whom  he  requested 
us  to  send  the  papers  containing  his  essays.  I  want  you  to 
annver  them.  You  will  see  that  the  whole  of  his  arguments 
respecting  Ohio  and  Indiana  do  not  apply  to  Illinois,  as  our 
boundary  has  the  assent  of  Congress,  while  that  of  the 
former  states  has  not.  I  will  further  suggest  to  you  that 
the  Ordinance  does  not  say  that  the  east  and  west  line 
from  the  southerly  Ijend  of  Lake  Michigan  shall  be  the 
boundary  ;  but  that  congress  may  form  one  or  more  states 
north  of  that  line — and  would  not  the  southern  boundary 
of  the  state  of  Wisconsin  at  42°  30'  be  in  accordance  with 
that  injunction  or  permission  ?  Further,  Illinois  has  a  natural 
right  to  a  port  on  Lake  Michigan,  which  the  old  line  would  cut 
her  off  from.  This  subject  is  of  more  importance  than  you 
may  think  it  is.  A  large  portion,  perhaps  a  majority,  of  the 
people  here,  are  of  Judge  Doty's  opinion,  and  are  wishing 
and  expecting  the  old  line  to  be  established.  I  have  been  in- 
formed that  Judge  D.  has  said  that  should  a  case  of  juris- 
diction come  before  him,  he  would  decide  against  us.  The 
contention  in  Michigan  proper  is  for  ten  miles  only,  which 
Ohio  and  Indiana  have  got  north  of  the  *  east  and  west 
line.' » 

See  JVis.  Hist.  Colls.,  x.,  pp.  236,  237,  for  instance  of  con- 
fusion existing,  at  this  time,  as  to  the  location  of  the  Wiscon- 
sin-Illinois boundary  —  the  election  commissioners  of  Jo 
Daviess  County,  Illinois,  opening  a  poll  at  Platteville,  Wis- 
consin. E.  B.  Washburne  says,  in  connection  with  this 
fact  :*' The  boundary  line  between  Illinois  and  Michigan 
Territory  was  not  officially  defined  until  1830."  —  Ed. 


I02       Essays  in  We  si  em  History 

the  same  as  before,  except  that  the  country  to 
the  east  of  the  Mackinac  meridian  was  not  now 
claimed,  a  House  committee  having  reported 
in  1832  that  **  the  due  Hne  north  from  Mac- 
kinau  should  be  retained  as  more  in  conso- 
nance with  the  Ordinance  of  1787."  ^  The  bill 
hung  fire  on  account  of  the  Ohio-Michigan 
dispute,  with  the  result  that,  as  already  stated, 
Wisconsin,  the  fifth  and  last  division  in  the 
Northwest  Territory,  was  stripped  of  the  entire 
Upper  Peninsula.  The  selected  land  line  be- 
tween Wisconsin  and  Michigan  —  connecting 
the  Montreal  and  Menominee  rivers  —  appears 
to  have  been  the  suggestion,  in  1834,  of  Sena- 
tor Preston  of  South  Carolina.^  An  old  map  of 
Wisconsin,  then  in  vogue,  erroneously  showed 
a  continuous  water-course  between  those  two 
points,  thus  making  an  island  of  the  peninsula. 
The  bill  establishing  the  new  Territory 
was  approved  April  20,  1836,  Wisconsin 
r,    ..      ^  beiner  therein  assigned    these    limits : 

Erection  of  °  ° 

Wisconsin  *'  Bouudcd  on  the  east  by  a  line  drawn 
Territory  ^^^^  ^^^  northcast  comcr  of  the  State 
of  lUinois,  through  the  middle  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan, to  a  point  in  the  middle  of  said  lake  and 
opposite  the  main  channel  of  Green  Bay,  and 

1  Governor  Doty's  Message,  December  4,  1843. 

2  ms.  Hist.  Colls..,  iv.,  p.  352. 


Division  of  the  Northwest        103 

through  said  channel  and  Green  Bay  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Menomonee  River;  thence 
through  the  middle  of  the  main  channel  of 
said  river  to  that  head  of  said  river  nearest  to 
the  Lake  of  the  Desert;  thence  in  a  direct  line 


WISCONSIN, 

JUXE  12, 1SI8. 


to  the  middle  of  said  lake;  tlience  through  the 
middle  of  the  main  channel  of  the  Montreal 
River  to  its  mouth ;  thence  with  a  direct  line 
across  Lake  Superior  to  where  the  territorial 
line  of  the  United  States  last  touches  said  lake 
northwest;  thence  on  the  north  with  the  said 


I04       Essays  in  Western  History 

territorial  line  to  the  White  Earth  River;  on 
the  west  by  a  line  from  the  said  boundary  line 
following  down  the  middle  of  the  main  channel 
of  White  Earth  River  to  the  Missouri  River, 
and  down  the  middle  of  the  main  channel  of 
the  Missouri  River  to  a  point  due  west  from 
the  northwest  corner  of  the  State  of  Missouri ; 
and  on  the  south,  from  said  point,  due  east  to 
the  northeast  corner  of  the  State  of  Missouri ; 
and  thence  with  the  boundaries  of  the  States 
of  Missouri  and  Illinois,  as  already  fixed  by 
acts  of  Congress." 

It  was  Hobson's  choice,  with  both  Wisconsin 
and  Michigan.  Congress  assumed  the  right 
to  govern  and  divide  the  Northwest  Territory 
to  suit  itself,  regardless  of  the  solemn  compact 
of  1787,  and  there  seemed  nothing  to  do  but 
submit.  The  future  proved  that  Michigan  had 
in  the  great  northern  peninsula  been  awarded 
more  than  an  equivalent  for  the  narrow  belt  of 
country  lost  to  Ohio,  and  had  no  reason  to 
grumble ;  while  Wisconsin  lost  in  the  trans- 
action a  wide  tract  of  territory  which  belongs 
to  her  geographically,  and  which  had  been 
assigned  to  her  in  the  preliminary  delibera- 
tions concerning  the  political  division  of  the 
Northwest.  But  while  the  consent  of  Michigan 
had  been  formally  asked  and  reluctantly  given 


Division  of  the  Northwest        1 05 

to  this  violation  of  the  great  Ordinance,  that 
of  Wisconsin  was  not  sought,  either  as  to  her 
northeastern  or  her  southern  boundar}^. 

The  matter  of  her  southern  boundary  was 
the  occasion  of  much  uneasiness  in  Wisconsin 
Wisconshi's  between  1838  and  1846.  We  have 
southern  seen  that  the  act  erecting  that  Terri- 
boundary  ^^^^  {\%z6)  recognizcd  the  northern 
boundary  of  Illinois  as  estabHshed  in  18 18. 
But  in  December,  1838,  the  Wisconsin  Legis- 
lature memorialized  Congress,  declaring  that 
the  determination  of  Illinois's  northern  bound- 
ary twenty  years  before  was  '*  directly  in  col- 
lision with,  and  repugnant  to,  the  compact 
entered  into  by  the  original  States,  with  people 
and  states  within  the  Northwestern  Territory  " ; 
and  praying  that,  as  a  measure  of  justice,  "  the 
southern  boundary  of  [Wisconsin]  Territory 
may  be  so  far  altered  as  to  include  all  the 
Country  lying  north  of  a  line  drawn  due  west 
from  the  southern  extreme  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan." The  strip  asked  for  was  over  sixty- 
one  miles  in  width,  embraced  eight  thousand, 
five  hundred  square  miles  of  unusually  fertile 
soil,  many  excellent  water-powers,  and  the 
sites  of  Chicago,  Rockford,  Freeport,  Galena, 
Oregon,  Dixon,  and  several  other  prosperous 
towns. 


io6       Essays  in  Western  History 

The  memorial  was  pigeon-holed  by  the 
Senate  judiciary  committee.  But  the  Wiscon- 
sin Legislature,  urged  on  by  Governor  Dodge, 
returned  to  the  charge  a  year  later,  with  reso- 
lutions declaring  that  Congress  had  violated 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  that  ''a  large  and 
valuable  tract  of  country  is  now  held  by  the 
State  of  Illinois,  contrary  to  the  manifest  right 
and  consent  of  the  people  of  the  Territory." 
The  people  living  in  the  disputed  tract  in 
Illinois  were  invited  to  express  their  opinion 
of  the  matter  at  the  ballot-box.  Public  meet- 
ings were  held  at  several  affected  Illinois 
towns;  and  a  convention  representing  the 
Illinois  counties  of  Jo  Daviess,  Stephenson, 
Winnebago,  Boone,  McHenry,  Ogle,  Carroll, 
Whitesides,  and  Rock  Island  was  held  at  Rock- 
ford  (July  6,  1840),  which  declared  that  Wis- 
consin had  a  sound  claim  to  the  fourteen 
northern  counties  of  Illinois.  A  popular  elec- 
tion was  held  in  Stephenson  County,  February 
19,  1842,  whereat  of  the  five  hundred  and 
seventy  votes  cast,  all  but  one  were  in  favor 
of  uniting  with  Wisconsin;  and  in  August, 
Boone  County's  vote  was  similarly  demon- 
strative. 

Outside  of  the  Legislature,  the  people  of 
Wisconsin  themselves  exhibited  small  interest 


Division  of  the  Northwest        107 

in  the  discussion.  But  at  Madison,  the  terri- 
torial lawmakers  continued  their  agitation,  oc- 
casionally spicing  their  pugnacious  memorials 
to  Congress  with  thinly  veiled  threats  of  seces- 
sion, and  such  verbal  boasts  as,  **  The  moral 
and  physical  force  of  Illinois,  of  the  whole 
Union,  cannot  make  us  retrace  our  steps !  " 
In  Congress,  Illinois  tactics  prevented  action 
on  Wisconsin's  claims ;  and  gradually  the  Wis- 
consin Legislature  tired  of  the  one-sided  con- 
test. In  the  first  constitutional  convention  at 
Madison  (1846),  an  attempt  was  made  by  some 
of  the  members  to  refer  the  boundary  dispute  to 
the  Federal  Supreme  Court ;  but  this  proposi- 
tion failed  —  largely  owing,  it  was  claimed,  to 
the  disHke  of  some  of  the  Wisconsin  politicians 
to  coming  into  competition  with  those  in  North- 
ern Illinois.  The  constitution-makers  there- 
fore peaceably  accepted  the  southern  boundary 
which  Congress  had  established ;  and  thus  the 
question  was  laid  at  rest  forever. 

By  act  of  June  12,  1838,  Congress  contracted 
the  limits  of  Wisconsin  by  creating  from  its 
trans-Mississippi  tract  ^  the  Territory  of  Iowa. 

1  The  language  of  the  clause  is  as  follows  :  "  All  that  part 
of  the  present  Territory  of  Wisconsin  which  lies  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River  and  west  of  the  line  drawn  due  north  from 
the  headwaters  or  sources  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  territorial 


io8       Essays  ill  Western  History 

This,    however,   was   in   accordance   with   the 

original  design  when  the  country  beyond  the 

Mississippi  was  attached  to  Michioran 

Iowa  de-  ^^  o 

tacked  from  Territory  for  purposes  of  temporary 
tsconsin  government;  licnce  no  objection  to 
this  arrangement  was  entertained  by  Wiscon- 
sin. The  establishment  of  lov/a  had  reduced 
Wisconsin  to  her  present  Hmits,  except  that  she 
still  held,  as  her  western  boundary,  the  Missis- 
sippi River  to  its  source,  and  a  line  drawn  due 
north  therefrom  to  the  international  boundary. 
In  this  condition  Wisconsin  remained  until 
the  act  of  Congress  approved  August  6,  1846, 
„,.  .  ,  enabling  her  people  to  form  a  State 
northwest  constitutiou.  Settlements  had  now 
boundary  ^^^^  established  along  the  Upper 
Mississippi   and    in   the    St.  Croix  valley,  far 

line  "  [international  boundary].  By  a  memorial  to  Congress 
of  the  Wisconsin  Territorial  I^egislature,  approved  January 
14,  1841  {Senate  Docs.,  No.  171,  26th  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  vol.  iv.), 
it  will  be  seen  that  under  this  act  of  June  12,  1838,  there  was 
some  ambiguity  as  to  the  western  boundary  description ;  the 
Wisconsin  memorialists  held  that  *'  the  effect  of  the  act  con- 
fined the  western  boundary-line  of  Wiskonsin  to  the  edge  of 
the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  river,  and  took  away  the  juris- 
diction of  Wiskonsin  over  any  part  or  portion  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, either  concurrent  or  otherwise."  Congress  finally 
changed  the  phraseology,  so  that  Wisconsin's  western 
boundary  became  "  the  center  of  the  main  channel  of  that 
river." 


Division  of  the  Northwest        109 


removed  from,  and  having  neither  social  nor 
commercial  interests  in  common  with,  the  bulk 
of  settlement  in  Southern  and  Eastern  Wiscon- 
sin. The  northwestern  settlers  did  not  wish  to 
be  permanently  connected  with  Wisconsin,  but 


n^-orneVWccS 

^A 

C^ 

V  y^             J|_MACKIKAW 

^^^J>  ^ 

(i 

oispvjco  TCRRrroftv 

n.     LAHDMJ 

♦•^M* 

^» 

mUAWt  DISPUTES 

did  desire  to  cast  their  fortunes  with  a  new 
Territory,  to  be  called  Minnesota,  which  was 
to  be  formed  west  of  the  Mississippi.  They 
therefore  brought  strong  influences  to  bear  in 
Congress,  and  the  enabling  act  in  question  gave 
to  Wisconsin  practically  the  same  northwestern 
line  that  she  has  to-day  —  from  the  first  rapids 


no       Essays  in  Western  History 

of  the  St.  Louis  River  due  south  to  the  St. 
Croix  River  and  thence  to  the  Mississippi. 
This  set  off  from  Wisconsin  and  assigned  to 
Minnesota  an  area  of  twenty-six  thousand 
square  miles,  with  the  city  of  St.  Paul  included. 
There  was  a  sharp  contest  over  the  matter, 
both  in  Congress  and  in  the  Wisconsin  con- 
stitutional conventions  of  1846  and  1847-48, 
with  the  result  that  the  St.  Croix  people  won, 
and  Wisconsin,  the  fifth  and  last  State  of  the 
Northwest  Territory,  became  a  member  of  the 
Union  (act  approved  May  29,  1848),  with  her 
present  limits :  shorn  on  the  south  by  Illinois, 
on  the  northeast  by  Michigan,  and  on  the 
northwest  by  Minnesota. 

In  1837,  Wisconsin  Territory  had  a  diplo- 
matic flurry  with  Missouri  regarding  the  south- 
ern bounds  of  her  trans-Mississippi  tract,  but 
as  that  country  was  merely  attached  to  Wis- 
consin for  temporary  purposes  and  was  after- 
wards absorbed  by  Iowa,  the  particulars  of  the 
dispute  are  not  now  pertinent.  Neither  is 
.    .  ,        the  animated  disturbance  created  by 

An  inter-  ...  . 

national  the  Wiscousin  Legislature  in  1843-44 
dispute  ^^^j.  ^^  terms  of  the  international 
boundary  treaty  of  1842,  of  importance  at  this 
day ;  for  when  Wisconsin  became  a  State,  the 
strip  of  country  northwest  of  Lake  Superior, 


Division  of  the  Northwest        1 1 1 

which  she  claimed  had  been  wrongfully  en- 
croached upon  by  Great  Britain,  to  the  extent 
of  ten  thousand  square  miles,  became  the 
property  of  Minnesota,  which  fell  heir  to  the 
international  dispute.^ 

1  For  detailed  treatment,  see  Thwaites's  "  Boundaries  of 
Wisconsin,"  Wis,  Hist.  Colls.y  xi. 


"^ 


Ill 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR 


Ill 

THE    BLACK   HAWK   WAR 

ALTHOUGH  many  of  its  incidents  were 
paltry  enough,  few  events  in  the  early 
history  of  the  West  were  as  picturesque,  as 
tragical,   or   as    fraught  with   weighty   conse- 
quence,  as   the    Black    Hawk   War, 

Partisan        ^ 

mtsrepre-  which  occurrcd  in  1832.  Certainly 
sentattons  ^q^q  \idiVQ  been  SO  pcrsistcntly  mis- 
represented for  partisan  purposes.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  close  of  the  war,  numerous 
persons  who  had  served  with  the  army  hast- 
ened to  record  their  impressions  in  the  fron- 
tier newspapers  and  in  book  form.  These 
publications  seem  chiefly  to  have  been  de- 
signed as  electioneering  documents  to  glorify 
the  war  records  of  certain  officials  engaged  in 
the  service,  and  correspondingly  to  belittle  the 
deeds  of  others.  This  gave  rise,  through  a 
score  or  more  of  years,  to  acrimonious  con- 
troversies, conducted  through  the  media  of 
pubHshed  documentary  collections,    speeches, 


1 1 6       Essays  in  Western  History 

newspapers,  and  unpublished  letters.  As  the 
result  of  these  prejudiced  accounts,  th^ere  have 
developed  in  the  public  mind  vague  and  in 
large  measure  incorrect  notions  of  the  war,  its 
causes,  its  incidents,  and  the  relative  merits  of 
its  chief  participants.  It  is  the  attempt  of  this 
paper  to  dispel,  it  may  be,  some  of  these  errors 
by  presenting  a  sketch  of  the  famous  uprising 
of  the  Sauks,  in  the  preparation  of  which  parti- 
san sympathy  has  not  entered,  the  truth  alone 
being  sought  from  original  sources. 

On  the  third  of  November,  1804,  the  United 
States  government  concluded  a  treaty  with  the 
%  aUied  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians,  by  which,  mainly 
Treaty  of     ^o^  the  paltry  annuity  of  a  thousand 
1804  dollars,  the  confederacy  ceded  to  the 

whites  fifty  million  acres  of  land,  comprising 
in  general  terms  the  eastern  third  of  the  pres- 
ent State  of  Missouri,  and  the  territory  lying 
between  the  Wisconsin  River  on  the  north,  the 
Fox  River  of  the  IlHnois  on  the  east,  the  Illinois 
on  the  southeast,  and  the  Mississippi  on  the 
west.  There  was  an  unfortunate  clause  in  this 
compact  (article  seven),  which  became  one  of 
the  chief  causes  of  the  Black  Hawk  War. 
Instead  of  obliging  the  Indians  at  once  to 
vacate  the  ceded  territory,  it  was  stipulated 
that,   "as   long   as   the   lands  which  are  now 


The  Black  Hawk  War 


117 


ceded  to  the  United  States  remain  their  prop- 
erty "  —  that  is  to  say,  public  land  —  "  the  In- 


XEGEND  ^^^^i^^t 


dians  belonging  to  the  said  tribes  shall  enjoy 
the  privilege  of  living  or  hunting  upon  them."^ 


^  Treaties  between  the  United  States  of  America  and  the 
several  Indian  Tribes  (Washington,  1837),  p.  109. 


1 1 8       Essays  in  Western  History 

Within  the  limits  of  the  cession  was  the 
chief  seat  of  Sauk  power  ^  —  a  village  lying  on 
the  north  side  of  Rock  River,  three  miles  above 
The  old  its  mouth  and  the  same  distance  south 
Sauk  village  q{  Rock  Island,  in  the  Mississippi. 
It  was  picturesquely  situated,  contained  the 
principal  cemetery  of  the  nation,  and  was 
populated  by  about  five  hundred  families, 
being  one  of  the  largest  Indian  towns  on 
the  continent.  The  soil  was  alluvial  in  its 
composition,  producing  large  crops  of  corn 
and  pumpkins,  and  the  aboriginal  villagers 
took  great  pride  in  a  rudely  cultivated  tract 
some  three  thousand  acres  in  extent,  lying 
north  of  the  town  and  parallel  with  the 
Mississippi. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury the  principal  character  in  this  village  was 
Makataimeshekiakiak,  or  Black  Sparrow  Hawk 
—  commonly  styled  Black  Hawk.    Born  at  the 

1  The  allied  Sauks  and  Foxes  had,  from  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  occupied  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi, 
between  the  mouths  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Wisconsin. 
The  confederation,  in  times  of  peace,  was  more  nominal 
than  real.  There  was  much  jealous  bickering  between  the 
tribes.  In  general,  the  Foxes,  who  occupied  the  west  bank, 
and  were  the  smallest  tribe  numerically,  were  more  concilia- 
tory toward  the  whites  than  were  the  Sauks,  who  dwelt 
chiefly  along  the  east  bank. 


i 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 1 9 

Sauk  village  in  i  ^6^^  he  was  neither  an  heredi- 
tary nor  an  elected  chief,  but  by  common 
Black  consent   became   the   leader   of  that 

Hawk  community.  Although  not  possessed 
of  superior  physical,  moral,  or  intellectual  en- 
dowments, the  force  of  circumstances  caused 
him  to  become  a  national  celebrity  in  his  day 
and  a  conspicuous  figure  in  Western  history  for 
all  time.  He  was  a  restless,  ambitious  savage, 
possessed  of  some  of  the  qualities  of  successful 
leadership,  but  without  the  capacity  to  attain 
the  highest  honors  in  the  Sauk  and  Fox  con- 
federacy. He  early  became  a  malcontent, 
jealous  of  Keokuk,  Wapello,  Morgan,  and  the 
other  recognized  chiefs,  continually  sought 
excuses  for  openly  differing  with  them  on 
questions  of  policy,  and  in  council  arrayed 
his  followers  against  them.  He  was  much  of 
a  demagogue,  and  aroused  the  passions  of 
his  people  by  appeals  to  their  prejudices  and 
superstitions. 

It  is  probable  that  he  was  never,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  this  policy,  dishonest  in  his  motives. 
Doubtless  he  was  sincere  in  the  opinions  he 
championed.  But  he  was  easily  influenced  by 
the  British  military  and  commercial  agents,  — 
who  were  continually  engaged,  previous  to  the 
War  of  18 12-15,  in  cultivating  a  spirit  of  hos- 


I20       Essays  in  Western  History 

tility  between  the  Northwestern  tribes  and  the 
Americans,  —  and  was  led  by  them  always  to 
consider  himself  under  the  special  protection 
of  the  "  British  father  "  (general  military  agent) 
at  Maiden.^  A  too-confiding  disposition  was 
ever  leading  his  judgment  astray.  He  was 
readily  duped  by  those  who,  white  or  red, 
were  interested  in  deceiving  him.  The  effect 
of  his  daily  communication  with  the  Ameri- 
cans was  often  rudely  to  shock  his  high  sense 
of  honor,  while  the  uniform  courtesy  of  the 
treatment  accorded  him  upon  his  annual  beg- 
ging visit  to  Maiden  contrasted  strangely  with 
the  attitude  of  the  inhabitants  on  the  Illinois 
border. 

Black  Hawk  was  about  five  feet,  four  or  five 
inches  in  height,  and  rather  spare  as  to  flesh ; 
his  somewhat  pinched  features  exaggerated  the 

1  In  his  Autobiography  (Boston,  1834),  —  probably  au- 
thentic for  the  most  part,  but  written  in  a  stilted  style  which 
we  doubtless  owe  to  the  editor,  Patterson,  —  Black  Hawk 
calls  the  president  at  Washington  his  "great  father,"  and 
the  agent  at  Maiden  his  "  British  father."  Ford's  History  of 
Illinois  (Chicago,  1854),  p.  no,  note,  questions  the  accuracy 
of  the  autobiography;  he  says  that  "Black  Hawk  knew 
little,  if  anything,  about  it " ;  that  it  "  was  written  by  a 
printer,  and  was  never  intended  for  anything  but  a  catch- 
penny publication,"  and  that  it  is  a  "gross  perversion  of 
facts."  Later  historians,  not  as  strong  Indian-haters  as 
Ford,  have  taken  a  more  favorable  view  of  the  book. 


J 


BLACK    HAWK 

From  the  painting  by  R.  M.  Sully ^  in  possession  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 2 1 

prominence  of  the  cheek-bones  of  his  race; 
he  had  a  full  mouth,  inclined  to  be  somewhat 
open  when  at  rest;  a  pronounced  Roman  nose ; 
fine  "  piercing "  eyes,  often  beaming  with  a 
kindly  and  always  with  a  thoughtful  expres- 
sion; practically  no  eyebrows;  a  high,  full 
forehead;  a  head  well  thrown  back,  with  a 
pose  of  quiet  dignity,  and  his  hair  plucked  out, 
with  the  exception  of  the  scalp-lock,  in  which, 
on  ceremonial  occasions,  was  fastened  a  bunch 
of  eagle  feathers.^  The  conservative  braves  of 
the  confederacy,  who  were  friendly  to  the 
Americans,  appear  in  the  main  to  have  re- 
garded the  Hawk  with  kindly  compassion. 
He  was  thought  by  them  to  be  misguided,  to 
be  the  credulous  catspaw  for  others,  but  his 
sincerity  was  not  often  doubted.  His  own  fol- 
lowers, who,  from  the  closeness  of  their  inter- 
course with  the  Canadian  authorities  were 
known  as  the  "  British  Band,"  as  a  rule  held 
him  in  the  highest  regard.^ 

1  An  admirable  original  portrait  of  Black  Hawk,  by  R.  M. 
Sully,  painted  in  1883  while  the  subject  was  a  prisoner  at 
Fortress  Monroe,  hangs  in  the  portrait  gallery  of  the  Wis- 
consin Historical  Society;  a  photographic  engraving  of  this 
is  herewith  published. 

2  See  Reynolds's  My  Own  Times  {2d.  ed.,  Chicago,  1879), 
p.  204,  for  his  estimate  of  Black  Hawk.  Ford,  who  himself 
served  in  the  Black  Hawk  War,  says,  in  his  History  of  Illinois 


122       Essays  in  Western  History 

At  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  in  1812,  Black 
Hawk  naturally  sided  with  Tecumseh  and  the 
British.  Accompanied  by  a  band  of  two  hun- 
^^j  dred  Sauk  braves,  he  served  under  the 

Tecumseh  great  Shawnee  chief  until  the  death 
of  the  latter  at  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  Octo- 
ber 5,  1813.^  Black  Hawk  —  who  had,  in 
company  with  the  Potawatomi  chiefs,  Shau- 
bena  and  Billy  Caldwell,  been  near  to  Tecum- 
seh when  he  fell  —  at  once  hurried  home. 
He  would,  he  tells  us  in  his  Autobiography, 
have  remained  quiet  thereafter,  until  the  close 
of  the  war,  but  for  a  fatal  injury  which  had 
during  his  absence  been  inflicted  by  a  party 
of  white  ruffians  upon  an  aged  friend  whom  he 
had  left  behind  at  the  village.  In  consequence 
of  this  outrage,  it  was  the  thirteenth  of  May, 
1 8 16,  —  nearly  eighteen  months  after  the  sign- 
ing of  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  —  before  the  British 
Band    of   the    Sauks    could    be    induced-  to 

(Chicago,  1854),  p.  109:  "  Black  Hawk  was  distinguished  for 
courage,  and  for  clemency  to  the  vanquished.  He  was  an 
Indian  patriot,  a  kind  husband  and  father,  and  was  noted 
for  his  integrity  in  all  his  dealings  with  his  tribe  and  with  the 
Indian  traders.  He  was  firmly  attached  to  the  British,  and 
cordially  hated  the  Americans." 

1  See  Cruikshank,  on  Black  Hawk's  record  in  the  War  of 
1812-15,  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.^  xii.,  pp.  141,  142. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  123 

cease  their  retaliatory  border  forays  along  the 
Upper  Mississippi  and  sign  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  the  United  States. 

After  burying  the  hatchet,  Black  Hawk  set- 
tled into  the  customary  routine  of  savage  life  — 
Bitterness  hunting  in  winter,  loafing  about  his 
against  village  in  summer,  improvidently  ex- 
isting from  hand  to  mouth  though 
surrounded  by  abundance,  and  occasionally 
varying  the  monotony  by  visits  to  Maiden, 
from  whence  he  would  return  laden  with 
provisions,  arms,  ammunition,  and  trinkets ; 
his  stock  of  vanity  increased  by  wily  flattery, 
and  his  bitterness  against  the  Americans  cor- 
respondingly intensified.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  he  should  have  hated  the  Americans.  They 
brought  him  naught  but  evil.  He  was  con- 
tinually being  disturbed  by  them,  and  a  cruel 
and  causeless  beating  which  he  received  from 
a  party  of  white  settlers  in  the  winter  of 
1822-23  was  an  insult  treasured  up  against  the 
American  people  as  a  whole. 

In  the  summer  of  1823,  squatters,  covetous  of 
the  rich  fields  cultivated  by  the  British  Band,  be- 
Encroach-  S^H  rudcly  to  take  possession  of  them. 
ment  of  The  treaty  of  1 804  had  guaranteed  to 
squa  ers  ^^^  Indians  the  use  of  the  ceded  terri- 
tory so  long  as  the  lands  remained  the  property 


124       Essays  in  Western  History 

of  the  United  States  and  were  not  sold  to  indi- 
viduals. The  frontier  line  of  homestead  settle- 
ment was  still  fifty  or  sixty  miles  to  the  east ;  the 
country  between  had  not  yet  been  surveyed,  and 
much  of  it  not  explored ;  the  squatters  had  no 
rights  in  this  territory,  and  it  was  clearly  the 
duty  of  the  federal  government  to  protect 
the  Indians  within  it  until  sales  were  made. 
The  Sauks  would  not  have  complained  had  the 
squatters  settled  in  other  portions  of  the  tract, 
and  not  sought  to  steal  the  village  which  was 
their  birthplace  and  contained  the  cemetery  of 
their  tribe.^  There  were  physical  outrages  of 
the  most  flagrant  nature.  Indian  cornfields 
were  unblushingly  included  within  the  areas 
appropriated  and  fenced  by  the  intruders, 
squaws  and  children  were  whipped  for  ventur- 
ing beyond  the  bounds  thus  set,  lodges  were 
burned  over  the  heads  of  the  occupants.  A 
reign  of  terror  ensued,  in  which  Black  Hawk's 
frequent  remonstrances  to  the  white  authori- 

1  "  I  had  an  interview  with  Keokuk  [head  chief  of  the 
confederacy],  to  see  if  this  difficulty  could  not  be  settled 
with  our  Great  Father,  and  told  him  to  propose  to  give  any 
other  land  that  our  Great  Father  might  choose,  even  our  lead 
mines,  to  be  peaceably  permitted  to  keep  the  small  point  of 
land  on  which  our  village  was  situated.  .  .  .  Keokuk  prom- 
ises to  make  an  exchange  if  possible."  —  Autobiography ^ 
pp.  8s,  86. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  125 

ties  were  in  vain.  The  situation  year  by  year 
became  more  unbearable.  When  the  Indians 
returned  each  spring  from  their  winter's  hunt 
they  found  their  village  more  of  a  wreck  than 
when  they  had  left  it  in  the  preceding  au- 
tumn. It  is  surprising  that  they  acted  so 
peacefully  while  the  victims  of  such  harsh 
treatment. 

Keokuk  and  the  United  States  Indian  agent 
at  Fort  Armstrong  —  which  had  been  built  on 
^^^^^  Rock  Island  about  1 8 1 6  —  continually 

Haxvk  advised  peaceful  retreat  across  the 
stubborn      Mississippi^      B^t  Black    Hawk   was 

stubborn  as  well  as  romantic,  and  his  people 
stood  by  him  when  he  appealed  to  their  love 
of  home  and  veneration  for  the  graves  of  their 
kindred.  He  now  set  up  the  claim  that  the 
Sauk  and  Fox  representatives  in  the  council 
which  negotiated  the  treaty  of  1804  did  not 
consent  that  the  land  on  which  stood  Black 
Hawk's  village  should  be  the  property  of  the 
United  States.^     This  was  the  weak  point  in 

1  "After  questioning  Quashquame  [one  of  the  signers 
6f  the  treaty  of  1804]  about  the  sale  of  the  lands,  he  assured 
me  that  he  never  had  consented  to  the  sale  of  our  village." 
—  Autobiography,  p.  85.  Yet  Quashquame  had  signed  the 
treaties  of  Portage  des  Sioux  (September  13,  181 5)  and 
St.  Louis  (September  3,  1822),  wherein  the  treaty  of  1804 
was  explicitly  reaffirmed. 


126       Essays  ill  Western  History 

his  position.  At  each  treaty  to  which  he  had 
'•  touched  the  quill "  since  that  date  he  had, 
with  the  rest  of  his  nation,  solemnly  reaffirmed 
the  integrity  of  the  compact  of  1804.  That  he 
understood  the  nature  of  its  provision,  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt.  But  this  fact  he  now 
conveniently  ignored.^  His  present  views 
were  indorsed  by  the  mischief-making  British 
agent  at  Maiden,  by  the  Winnebago  Prophet, 
and  by  others  of  his  advisers.  All  of  these 
told  him  that  were  it  true  the  government  had 
not  yet  bought  the  site  of  his  village,  he  should 
hold  fast  to  it,  and  the  United  States  would  not 
venture  to  remove  him  by  force.^ 

1  Black  Hawk  signed  the  treaties  of  St.  Louis  (May  13, 
1819),  St.  Louis  (September  3,  1822),  and  Prairie  du  Chien 
(August  19,  1S25),  each  of  which  reaffirmed  the  treaty  of 
1804. 

2  He  was  easily  satisfied  with  delphic  advice  :  "  I  heard 
that  there  was  a  great  chief  on  the  Wabash,  and  sent  a 
party  to  get  his  advice.  They  informed  him  that  we  had  not 
sold  our  village.  He  assured  them,  then,  that  if  we  had  not 
sold  the  land  on  which  our  village  stood,  our  Great  Father 
would  not  take  it  from  us.  I  started  early  to  Maiden  to  see 
the  chief  of  my  British  Father,  and  told  him  my  story.  He 
gave  the  same  reply  that  the  chief  on  the  Wabash  had 
given.  ...  I  next  called  on  the  great  chief  at  Detroit,  and 
made  the  same  statement  to  him  that  I  had  to  the  chief  of 
our  British  Father.  He  gave  me  the  same  reply.  .  .  .  This 
assured  me  that  I  was  right,  and  determined  me  to  hold  out, 
as  I  had  promised  our  people."  —  Autobiography,  pp.  94,  95. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  127 

White  Cloud,  the  Prophet,  was  Black  Hawk's 
evil  genius.  He  was  a  shrewd,  crafty  Indian, 
White  ^^^  Winnebago  and  half  Sauk,  pos- 
cioud,  the  sessing  much  influence  over  both 
nations  from  his  assumption  of  sacred 
talents,  and  was  at  the  head  of  a  Winnebago  vil- 
lage some  thirty-five  miles  up  the  Rock  River. 
He  possessed  some  traits  of  character  similar 
to  those  of  Tecumseh's  brother,  but  in  a  less 
degree.  His  hatred  of  the  whites  was  invet- 
erate ;  he  appears  to  have  been  devoid  of 
humane  sentiments;  he  had  a  reckless  dis- 
position, and  sowed  the  seeds  of  native  revolt 
apparently  to  gratify  his  passion  for  war. 
White  Cloud  was  about  forty  years  of  age 
when  his  sinister  agitation  bore  fruit ;  nearly 
six  feet  in  height,  stout  and  athletic ;  he  had  a 
large,  broad  face ;  a  short,  blunt  nose ;  full 
eyes,  large  mouth,  thick  lips,  a  full  head  of 
shaggy  hair.  His  general  appearance  in- 
dicated deliberate,  self-contented  savagery. 
In  council,  the  Prophet  displayed  much  zeal 
and  persuasive  oratory.  In  the  matter  of 
dress  he  must  at  times  have  been  picturesque. 
I  An  eye-witness,  who  was  in  attendance  on 
a  Potawatomi  council  wherein  the  wizard  was 
urging  the  cause  of  Black  Hawk,  describes 
him  as  dressed  in  a  faultless  white  buckskin 


128       Essays  in  Western  History 

suit,  fringed  at  the  seams ;  wearing  a  towering 
head-dress  of  the  same  material,  capped  with 
a  bunch  of  fine  eagle  feathers;  each  ankle 
girt  with  a  wreath  of  small  sleigh-bells  which 
jingled  at  every  step,  while  in  his  nose  and 
ears  were  ponderous  gold  rings  gently  tinkling 
one  against  the  other  as  he  shook  his  ponder- 
ous head  in  the  warmth  of  harangue.^ 

In  the  spring  of  1830  Black  Hawk  and  his 
band  returned  from  an  unsuccessful  hunt  to 
find  their  town  almost  completely  shattered, 
many  of  the  graves  ploughed  over,  and  the 
whites  more  abusive  than  ever.  During  the 
winter  the  squatters,  who  now  had  been  seven 
years  illegally  upon  the  ground,  formally  pre- 
empted a  few  quarter-sections  of  lands  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Rock,  so  selected  as  to  cover  the 
village  site  and  the  Sauk  cornfields.  This  was 
clearly  a  trick  to  accord  with  the  letter  but  to 
violate  the  spirit  of  the  treaty  of  1804.  There 
was  still  a  belt,  fifty  miles  wide,  of  practically 
unoccupied  territory  to  the  east  of  the  village, 

1  The  name  of  the  Prophet,  in  the  Winnebago  tongue, 
was  Waubakeeshik,  meaning  "  white  eye,"  having  reference 
to  the  fact  that  one  of  his  pupils  was  without  color.  Pioneers 
recently  living,  who  remembered  the  Prophet,  differed  in 
opinion  as  to  whether  he  was  totally  blind  in  that  organ. 
He  died  among  the  Winnebagoes  in  1840  or  1841. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  129 

and  no  necessity,  for  several  years  to  come,  for 
disturbing  the  Sauks  in  the  natural  progress  of 
settlement. 

The  indignant  Black  Hawk  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  Maiden,  to  pour  his  sorrows  into  the 
ears  of  his  **  British  father."  Here  he  received 
additional  assurance  of  the  justice  of  his  cause, 
and  upon  his  return  visited  the  Prophet,  at 
whose  village  he  met  some  of  the  Potawat- 
omis  and  Winnebagoes,  who  also  gave  him 
words  of  encouragement. 

Returning  to  his  village  in  the  spring  of  183 1, 
after  another  gloomy  and  profitless  winter's 
The  whites  hunt,  he  was  fiercely  warned  away 
threatened  ^^y  ^j^g  whites.  In  a  firm  and  digni- 
fied manner  he  notified  the  settlers  that,  if  they 
did  not  themselves  remove,  he  should  use  force. 
He  informs  us  in  his  Autobiography  that  he 
did  not  mean  bloodshed,  but  simply  muscular 
eviction.^     His  announcement   was  construed 

1  "The  white  people  brought  whiskey  into  our  village, 
made  our  people  drunk,  and  cheated  them  out  of  their  homes, 
guns,  and  traps.  This  fraudulent  system  was  carried  to  such 
an  extent  that  I  apprehended  serious  difficulties  might  take 
place  unless  a  stop  was  put  to  it.  Consequently  I  visited  all 
the  whites  and  begged  them  not  to  sell  whiskey  to  my  people. 
One  of  them  continued  the  practice  openly.  I  took  a  party 
of  my  young  men,  went  to  his  home,  and  took  his  barrel 
and  broke  in  the  head  and  turned  out  the  whiskey.  I  did 
9 


1 30       Essays  in  Western  History 

by  the  whites,  however,  as  a  threat  against 
their  lives ;  and  petitions  and  messages  were 
showered  in  by  them  upon  Governor  John  Rey- 
nolds, of  Illinois,  setting  forth  the  situation  in 
terms  that  would  be  amusing  in  their  exagger- 
ation were  it  not  that  they  proved  the  prelude 
to  one  of  the  darkest  tragedies  in  the  history  of 
the  Western  border.  The  governor  fell  in  with 
the  popular  spirit,  and  at  once  issued  a  flaming 
proclamation  calling  out  a  mounted  volunteer 
force  to  **  repel  the  invasion  of  the  British 
The  Hawk  Band."  Thcsc  volunteers,  sixteen 
coerced  hundred  strong,  cooperated  on  the 
twenty-fifth  of  June  with  ten  companies  of 
regulars  under  General  Edmund  P.  Gaines, 
the  commander  of  the  Western  division  of  the 
army,  in  a  demonstration  before  Black  Hawk's 
village.^ 

this  for  fear  some  of  the  whites  might  be  killed  by  my  people 
when  drunk."  —  Autobiography ^  p.  89. 

"  I  now  determined  to  put  a  stop  to  it,  by  clearing  our 
country  of  the  intruders.  I  went  to  the  principal  men  and 
told  them  that  they  must  and  should  leave  our  country,  and 
gave  them  until  the  middle  of  the  next  day  to  remove  in. 
The  worst  left  within  the  time  appointed  —  but  the  one  who 
remained  represented  that  his  family  (which  was  large) 
would  be  in  a  starving  condition  if  he  went  and  left  his  crop, 
and  promised  to  behave  well  if  I  would  consent  to  let  him 
remain  until  fall  in  order  to  secure  his  crop.  He  spoke 
reasonably,  and  I  consented."  —  Ibid.,  p.  loi. 

1  "  It  is  astonishing,  the  war-spirit  the  Western  people 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 3 1 

During  that  night  the  Indians,  in  the  face  of 
this  superior  force,  quietly  withdrew  to  the 
west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  whither  they  had 
previously  been  ordered.  On  the  thirtieth 
they  signed  with  General  Gaines  and  Governor 
Reynolds  a  treaty  of  capitulation  and  peace, 
solemnly  agreeing  never  to  return  to  the  east 
side  of  the  river  without  express  permission  of 
the  United  States  government.^  The  rest  of 
the  summer  was  spent  by  the  evicted  savages 
in  a  state  of  misery.  It  being  now  too  late  to 
raise  another  crop  of  corn  and  beans,  they  suf- 
fered much  for  the  actual  necessaries  of  hfe. 

Another  difficulty  soon  arose.  The  previous 
year  (1830),  a  party  of  Menominees  and  Sioux 
The  Me-  ^^^  murdered  some  member  of  the 
nominee  British  Band.  A  few  weeks  after  the 
massacre  j-cmoval,  Black  Hawk  and  a  large 
war-party  of  the  Sauks  ascended  the  Missis- 
sippi, and,  in  retahation,  massacred,  scalped, 

possess.  As  soon  as  I  decided  to  march  against  the  Indians 
at  Rock  Island,  the  whole  country,  throughout  the  north- 
west of  the  state,  resounded  with  the  war  clamor.  Every- 
thing was  in  a  bustle  and  uproai;.  It  was  then  eighteen  or 
twenty  years  since  the  war  with  Great  Britain  and  these 
same  Indians,  and  the  old  citizens  inflamed  the  young  men 
to  appear  in  the  tented  field  against  the  old  enemy."  — 
Reynolds,  p.  209. 

1  See  text  of  treaty.  —  Autobiography ^  pp.  218,  219. 


132       Essays  in  Western  History 

and  fearfully  mutilated  all  but  one  of  a  party 
of  twenty-eight  Menominees  who  were  en- 
camped on  an  island  nearly  opposite  Fort 
Crawford,  at  Prairie  du  Chien.  On  the  com- 
plaint of  the  Menominees,  General  Joseph 
Street,  the  Indian  agent  at  that  post,  de- 
manded that  the  Sauk  murderers  be  delivered 
to  him  for  trial,  under  existing  treaty  pro- 
visions. As  none  of  the  Menominee  murderers 
had  been  given  up,  his  foray  was,  according 
to  the  ethics  of  savage  warfare,  one  of  just 
reprisal.  Black  Hawk  therefore  declined  to 
accede;  but  although  this  was  the  custom 
of  his  race,  he  was  therein  clearly  rebelling 
against  the  United  States  government  through 
its  Indian  Department 

Neapope,  second  in  command  of  the  British 
Band,  had,  prior  to  the  eviction,  gone  upon 
Bad  a  visit  to  Maiden.     He  returned  to 

advice  j^js  chief  in  the  autumn,  by  way  of 
the  Prophet's  town,  with  glowing  reports  of 
proffered  aid  from  the  British  and  the  Win- 
nebagoes,  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  and  Pota- 
watomis,   in    the    regaining    of  the    village.^ 

1  "  He  (Neapope)  informed  me,  privately,  that  the 
Prophet  was  anxious  to  see  me,  as  he  had  much  good 
news  to  tell  me,  and  that  I  would  hear  good  news  in  the 
spring  from  our  British  father.    *  The  Prophet  requested  me 


The  Black  Hawk  War  133 

Neapope,  possessed  of  considerable  military 
genius,  was  an  ardent  disciple  of  the  Prophet, 
as  well  as  a  reckless  mischief-maker  on  his  own 
account.^ 

The  advice  of  White  Cloud  was,  that  Black 
Hawk  should  proceed  to  the  Prophet's  town 
the  following  spring  and  raise  a  crop  of  corn, 
assurances  being  given  him  that  by  autumn 
the  several  allies,  armed  and  equipped  by  the 
British,  would  be  ready  to  join  the  Sauk  leader 
in  a  general  movement  against  the  whites  in  the 
valley  of  the  Rock. 

to  inform  you  of  all  the  particulars.  I  would  much  rather, 
however,  you  should  see  him,  and  learn  all  from  himself. 
But  I  will  tell  you,  that  he  has  received  expresses  from  our 
British  father,  who  says  that  he  is  going  to  send  us  guns, 
ammunition,  provisions,  and  clothing,  early  in  the  spring. 
The  vessels  that  bring  them  will  come  by  way  of  Mil-wa-ke 
[Milwaukee].  The  Prophet  has  likewise  received  wampum 
and  tobacco  from  the  different  nations  on  the  lakes  —  Otta- 
was,  Chippewas,  Potawatomis ;  and  as  for  the  Winneba- 
goes,  he  has  them  all  at  his  command.  "We  are  going  to  be 
happy  once  more.'  " —  Autobiography,  p.  109. 

1  Neapope  (pronounced  Nah-popS)  means  "soup."  He 
was  regarded  as  something  of  a  curiosity  among  his  fellows, 
because  he  used  neither  whiskey  nor  tobacco.  Being  a 
"  medicine  man,"  he  was  in  demand  at  feasts  and  councils 
as  an  agency  through  which  "  talks  "  could  be  had  direct 
with  the  Great  Spirit.  He  had  the  reputation  of  being  bet- 
ter versed  in  the  Sauk  traditions  than  any  other  member  of 
the  tribe.  His  history  after  the  close  of  the  Black  Hawk 
War  is  unknown. 


134       Essays  in  Western  History 

Relying  upon  these  rose-colored  represen- 
tations, Black  Hawk  spent  the  winter  on  the 
British  ^^^^  deserted  site  of  old  Fort  Mad- 
Band  re-  ison,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, near  the  mouth  of  the  Des 
Moines,  engaged  in  quietly  recruiting  his 
band.  The  urgent  protests  of  Keokuk,  who 
feared  that  the  entire  Sauk  and  Fox  confederacy 
would  become  implicated  in  the  war  for  which 
the  Hawk  was  evidently  preparing,  but  spurred 
the  jealous  and  obstinate  partisan  to  renewed 
endeavors.^ 

At  this  period  the  territory  embraced  in 
the  Sauk  and  Fox  cession  of  1 804  was  an  al- 
Eariy  most  unbrokcn  wilderness  of  alternat- 

traiis  ing  prairies,  oak  groves,  rivers,  and 

marshes.  The  United  States  government  had 
not  surveyed  any  portion  of  it,  nor  had  it  been 
much  explored  by  white  hunters  or  pioneers ; 
while  the  Indians  themselves  were  acquainted 
with  but  narrow  belts  of  country  along  their 
accustomed  trails.  In  the  lead  regions  about 
Galena  and  Mineral  Point,  there  were  a  few 
trading  posts  and   small   mining   settlements. 

1  "  Keokuk,  who  has  a  smooth  tongue  and  is  a  great 
speaker,  was  busy  in  persuading  my  band  that  I  was  wrong, 
and  thereby  making  many  of  them  dissatisfied  with  me.  I 
had  one  consolation,  for  all  the  women  were  on  my  side,  on 
account  of  their  zoxx^^f^A^."  —  Autobiography,  p.  98. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  135 

An  Indian  trail  along  the  east  bank  of  the 
Mississippi  connected  Galena  and  Fort  Arm- 
strong, on  Rock  Island.  A  coach  road  known 
as  ''  Kellogg's  Trail,"  opened  in  1827,  connected 
Galena  with  Peoria  and  the  settlements  in 
southern  and  eastern  Illinois.  A  daily  mail 
coach  travelled  this,  the  only  wagon  road  north 
of  the  Illinois  River,  and  it  was  often  crowded 
with  people  going  to  and  from  the  mines,  which 
were  the  chief  source  of  wealth  for  the  northern 
pioneers.  Here  and  there  along  this  road 
lived  a  few  people  engaged  in  entertaining 
travellers  and  baiting  stage  horses  —  "Old 
Man  "  Kellogg  at  Kellogg's  Grove ;  one  Win- 
ter, on  Apple  River ;  John  Dixon  at  Dixon's 
Ferry,  on  Rock  River ;  "  Dad  Joe,"  at  Dad 
Joe's  Grove ;  Henry  Thomas,  on  West  Bureau 
Creek ;  Charles  S.  Boyd,  at  Boyd's  Grove,  and 
two  or  three  others  of  less  note.  Indian 
trails  crossed  the  country  in  many  directions, 
between  the  villages  of  the  several  bands 
and  their  hunting  and  fishing  grounds,  and 
these  were  used  as  public  thoroughfares  by 
whites  and  reds  alike.^  One  of  these  con- 
nected Galena  and  Chicago,  by  the  way  of  Big 

1  See  Wis.  Hist.  Colls. ^  xi.,  p.  230,  on  the  evolution  of 
highways  from  Indian  trails ;  also  the  several  volumes  in 
Hulbert's  Historic  Highways  of  America  (Cleveland,  1902HD3). 


136       Essays  in  Western  History 

Foot's  Potawatomi  village,  at  the  head  of  the 
body  of  water  now  known  as  Lake  Geneva. 
There  was  another,  but  seldom  used,  between 
Dixon's  and  Chicago.  The  mining  settlements 
were  also  connected  by  old  and  new  trails,  and 
two  well-travelled  ways  led  respectively  to  Fort 
Winnebago,  at  the  portage  of  the  Fox  and 
Wisconsin  rivers,  and  to  Fort  Howard,  on 
the  lower  Fox.  In  Illinois,  the  most  important 
aboriginal  highway  was  the  great  Sauk  trail, 
extending  in  almost  an  air  line  across  the  State 
from  Black  Hawk's  village  to  the  south  shore 
of  Lake  Michigan,  and  thence  to  Maiden ;  over 
this  deep-beaten  path  the  British  Band  made 
their  frequent  pilgrimages  to  Canada. 

Between  Galena  and  the  Illinois  River,  the 
largest  settlement  was  on  Bureau  Creek,  where 
Frontier  somc  thirty  families  were  gathered. 
settlements  There  wcrc  small  aggregations  of 
cabins  at  Peru,  La  Salle,  South  Ottawa,  New- 
ark, Holderman's  Grove,  and  a  little  cluster 
of  eight  or  ten  on  Indian  Creek.  The  lead- 
mining  colonies  in  the  portion  of  Michigan 
Territory  afterwards  set  aside  as  Wisconsin 
were  chiefly  clustered  about  Mineral  Point 
and  Dodgeville.^     At  the  mouth  of  Milwaukee 

1  See  map  of  lead  mines  in  1829,  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.y  xi., 
p.  400. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  137 

River,  on  Lake  Michigan,  the  fur-trader,  Solo- 
mon Juneau,  was  still  monarch  of  all  he 
surveyed ;  while  at  Chicago  there  was  a  popu- 
lation of  but  two  or  three  hundred,  housed  in 
primitive  abodes  nestled  under  the  shelter  of 
Fort  Dearborn.  Scattered  between  these  set- 
tlements were  a  few  widely  separated  farms, 
managed  in  a  crude,  haphazard  fashion ;  squat- 
ters were  more  numerous  than  homesteaders, 
and  at  best  little  attention  was  paid  to  metes 
and  bounds. 

The  settlers  were  chiefly  hardy  backwoods- 
men who  had  graduated  from  the  Pennsylvania, 
Character  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Indiana  clear- 
of  settlers  jngg^  and  **  come  West "  to  better 
their  fortunes,  or  because  neighbors  were  be- 
coming too  numerous  in  the  older  regions. 
Generally  they  were  poor,  owning  but  little 
more  than  their  cabins,  their  scanty  clothing, 
a  few  rough  tools,  teams  of  **  scrub  "  horses 
or  yokes  of  cattle,  and  some  barnyard  stock. 
They  were,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  prime  of 
life,  enterprising,  bold,  daring,  skilled  marks- 
men, and  accustomed  to  exposure,  privations, 
and  danger.  There  were  no  schools,  and  the 
only  religious  instruction  received  by  these 
rude  pioneers  was  that  given  by  adventurous 
missionaries    who   penetrated    the    wilderness 


138       Essays  in  Western  History 

with  the  self-sacrificing  energies  of  the  fathers 
of  the  church,  compensating  with  zeal  for  what 
they  lacked  in  culture. 

But  upon  the  heels  of  these  worthies  had 
come  thieves,  counterfeiters,  cut-throats,  social 
outlaws  from  the  East.  Reckless  and  aggres- 
sive, they  too  often  gave  to  the  community  a 
character  of  lawless  adventure.  Such  men 
haunt  the  frontiers  of  civilization ;  and  abo- 
rigines, from  being  more  frequently  brought 
into  collision  with  these  than  with  the  more 
conservative  majority,  are  apt  naturally  to 
form  an  opinion  of  our  race  that  is  far  from 
flattering.^ 

Conditions  in  Illinois  were  ripe  for  an  Indian 
war.  Many  elements  in  the  white  population 
„    ,  ^       foresaw  benefits  to  be  derived  from  it. 

Ready  for 

an  Indian  Occupation  would  be  given  to  the 
'*""'  small  but  noisy  class  of  pioneer  loaf- 

ers, and  government  money  would  circulate 
freely;  to  the  numerous  and  respectable  body 
of  Indian-haters  —  persons  who  had  at  some 
time  suffered  in  person  or  property  from  the 
red  savages,  and  had  come  to  regard  them  as 

1  Nicolay  and  Hay's  Abraham  Lincoln  —  A  History ^  i., 
chaps,  ii.  and  iii.,  gives  a  graphic  picture  of  pioneer  life  in 
Illinois  in  1830;  but  their  account  of  the  Black  Hawk  War, 
chap,  v.,  unfortunately  contains  numerous  errors. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  139 

little  better  than  wild  beasts  —  it  offered  a 
chance  for  reprisal ;  to  the  political  aspirant,  a 
brilliant  foray  presented  opportunities  for  the 
achievement  of  personal  popularity,  and  in- 
deed the  Black  Hawk  War  was  long  the 
chief  stock  in  trade  of  many  a  subsequent 
statesman ;  while  to  persons  fond  of  mere 
adventure,  always  a  large  element  on  the  bor- 
der, the  fighting  of  Indians  presented  superior 
attractions. 

On  the  sixth  of  April,  1832,  Black  Hawk 
and  Neapope,  with  about  five  hundred  warriors 
Illinois  in-  (chiefly  Sauks),  their  squaws  and  chil- 
vaded  dren,  and  all  their  possessions,  crossed 

the  Mississippi  at  the  Yellow  Banks,  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Rock,  and  invaded  the  State  of 
Illinois.  During  the  winter,  the  results  of  the 
Hawk's  negotiations  with  the  Winnebagoes 
and  Potawatomis  had  not  been  of  an  encour- 
aging nature.  He  now  suspected  that  the  repre- 
sentations of  the  Prophet  and  Neapope  were 
exaggerated,  and  his  advance  from  Fort  Madi- 
son up  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  was 
accordingly  made  with  some  forebodings ;  but 
the  Prophet  met  him  at  the  Yellow  Banks, 
and  gave  him  such  positive  reassurances  of 
ultimate  success,  that  the  misguided  Sauk 
confidently  and  leisurely  continued  his  jour- 


140       Essays  in  Western  History 

ney.^  He  proceeded  up  the  east  bank  of  the 
Rock  as  far  as  the  Prophet's  town  —  some  four 
hundred  and  fifty  of  his  braves  being  well 
mounted,  while  the  others,  with  the  women, 
children,  and  equipage,  occupied  the  canoes. 
The  intention  of  the  invaders  was,  as  before 
stated,  to  raise  a  crop  with  the  Rock  River 
Winnebagoes  at  or  immediately  above  the 
Prophet's  town,  and  prepare  for  the  war-path 
in  the  fall,  when  there  would  be  a  supply  of 
provisions.  Progress  was  so  beset  by  difficul- 
ties, heavy  rains  having  made  the  stream  tur- 
bulent and  the  wide  river  bottoms  swampy, 
that  the  band  was  twenty  days  in  travelling  the 
intervening  forty  miles. 

Immediately  upon  crossing  the  Mississippi, 
Black  Hawk  had  despatched  messengers  to 
Shaiibena's  the  Potawatomis,  asking  them  to 
services  mcct  him  in  council  of  war  on  Syca- 
more Creek  (now  Stillman's  Run),  opposite 
the  present  site  of  Byron.     The  Potawatomis 

1  "  The  Prophet  then  addressed  my  braves  and  warriors. 
He  told  them  to  follow  us,  and  act  like  braves,  and  we  had 
nothing  to  fear,  but  much  to  gain.  That  the  American  war 
chief  might  come,  but  would  not,  nor  dare  not,  interfere  with 
us  so  long  as  we  acted  peaceably.  That  we  were  not  yet 
ready  to  act  otherwise.  We  must  wait  until  we  ascend  Rock 
River  and  receive  our  reinforcements,  and  we  will  then  be 
able  to  withstand  any  army  !  "  —  Autobiography,  p.  1 13. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  141 

were  much  divided  in  opinion  as  to  the  proper 
course  to  pursue.  Shaubena,  a  chief  of  much 
abiHty,  who  since  the  War  of  1812-15  had 
formed  a  sincere  respect  and  attachment  for 
the  whites,  succeeded  in  inducing  the  ma- 
jority of  the  braves  at  least  to  remain  neutral ; 
but  the  hot-heads,  under  Big  Foot  and  a 
despicable  half-breed  British  agent,  Mike 
Girty,  were  fierce  for  taking  the  war-path. 
Shaubena,  after  quieting  the  passions  of  his 
followers,  set  out  at  once  to  make  a  rapid  tour 
of  the  settlements  in  the  Illinois  and  Rock 
valleys,  carrying  the  first  tidings  of  approaching 
war  to  the  pioneers,  even  extending  his  mission 
as  far  east  as  Chicago.^ 

General  Henry  Atkinson^  had  arrived  at 
Fort  Armstrong  early  in  the  spring,  in  charge 
Troops  of  a  company  of  regulars,  for  the  pur- 
caiiedout  pose  of  enforcing  the  demand  of  the 
Indian  department  for  the  Sauk  murderers  of 
the  Menominees.  He  did  not  learn  of  the 
invasion  until  the  thirteenth  of  April,  seven 
days  after  the  crossing,  and  at  once  notified 
Governor  Reynolds  that  his  own  force  was 
too  small  for  the  emergency  and  that  a  large 
detachment  of  militia  was  essential.     The  gov- 

1  See  Matson's  Memories  of  Shaubena  (Chicago,  1880). 

2  The  Indians  called  him  "  White  Beaver." 


142       Essays  in  Western  History 

ernor  immediately  issued  another  fiery  proc- 
lamation (April  16),  calling  for  a  special  levy 
of  mounted  volunteers  to  assemble  at  Beards- 
town,  on  the  lower  reaches  of  Illinois  River, 
upon  the  twenty-second  of  the  month. 

The  news  spread  like  wild-fire.  Some  of  the 
settlers  flew  from  the  country  in  hot  haste, 
stockade  ncvcr  to  return ;  but  the  majority  of 
forts  those  who  did  not  join  the  State  troops 

hastened  into  the  larger  settlements  or  to  other 
points  convenient  for  assembly,  where  rude 
stockade  forts  were  built  on  Kentucky  models, 
the  inhabitants  forming  themselves  into  little 
garrisons,  with  officers  and  some  degree  of 
miHtary  discipline.-^ 

1  The  following  named  forts  figured  more  or  less  conspicu- 
ously in  the  ensuing  troubles  : 

In  Illinois  —  Galena,  Apple  River,  Kellogg's  Grove,  Buf- 
falo Grove,  Dixon's,  South  Ottawa,  Wilburn  (nearly  opposite 
the  present  city  of  Peru),  West  Bureau,  Hennepin,  and  Clark 
(at  Peoria). 

In  Michigan  Territory  (now  Southwestern  Wisconsin)  — 
Union  (Dodge's  smelting  works,  near  Dodgeville),  Defiance 
(Parkinson's  farm,  five  miles  southeast  of  Mineral  Point), 
Hamilton  (William  S.  Hamilton's  smelting  works,  now 
Wiota),  Jackson  (at  Mineral  Point),  Blue  Mounds  (one  and 
a  half  miles  south  of  East  Blue  Mound),  Parish's  (at  Thomas 
J.  Parish's  smelting  works,  now  Wingville),  Cassville,  Platte- 
ville,  Gratiot's  Grove,  Diamond  Grove,  White  Oak  Springs, 
Old  Shullsburg,  and  Elk  Grove. 


TJie  Black  Hawk  War  143 

Fort  Armstrong  was  soon  a  busy  scene  of 
preparation.  St.  Louis  was  at  the  time  the 
Atkinson  ^^^7  government  supply  dep6t  on 
organizes  the  Upper  Mississippi ;  and  Hmited 
the  army  transportation  facilities,  and  the  bad 
weather  incident  to  a  backward  spring,  greatly 
hampered  the  work  of  collecting  troops,  stores, 
boats,  and  camp  equipage.  General  Atkinson, 
energetic  and  possessed  of  much  executive 
ability,  overcame  these  difficulties  as  rapidly 
as  possible.  He  had  military  skill,  courage, 
perseverance,  and  knowledge  of  Indian  char- 
acter, and  during  his  preparations  for  the  cam- 
paign took  pains  personally  to  assure  himself  of 
the  peaceful  attitude  of  those  Sauks  and  Foxes 
not  members  of  the  British  Band.  He  also  sent 
two  sets  of  messengers  to  Black  Hawk,  order- 
ing him  to  withdraw  at  once  to  the  west  bank 
of  the  river,  on  the  peril  of  being  driven  there 
by  force  of  arms.  To  both  messages  the  Sauk 
leader,  now  blindly  trusting  in  the  Prophet, 
sent  defiant  answers.^ 

1  "  Another  express  came  from  the  White  Beaver  [Atkin- 
son], threatening  to  pursue  us  and  drive  us  back,  if  we  did 
not  return  peaceably.  This  message  roused  the  spirit  of  my 
band,  and  all  were  determined  to  remain  with  me  and  contest 
the  ground  with  the  war  chief,  should  he  come  and  attempt 
to  drive  us.  We  therefore  directed  the  express  to  say  to  the 
war  chief,  *  If  he  wished  to  fight  us,  he  might  come  on  1 '    We 


144       Essays  in  Western  History 

Meanwhile  the  volunteers,  easily  recruited 
amid  the  general  excitement,  rendezvoused  at 
Volunteers  Bcardstowu.  They  were  organized 
mobtitzed  j^j^q  {q^j.  regiments,  under  the  com- 
mands of  Colonel  John  Thomas,  Jacob  Fry, 
Abraham  B.  Dewitt,  and  Samuel  M.  Thomp- 
son ;  there  were  also  a  spy  (or  scout)  battalion 
under  Major  James  D.  Henry,  and  two  '*  odd 
battalions  "  under  Majors  Thomas  James  and 
Thomas  Long.^  The  entire  force,  some  six- 
were  determined  never  to  be  driven,  and  equally  so,  not  to 
make  the  first  attack,  our  object  being  to  act  only  on  the 
defensive." — Autobiography,  p.  114. 

Wakefield's  History  of  the  War  (Jacksonville,  111.,  1834), 
pp.  10-12,  gives  an  interesting  report  of  a  visit  to  Black 
Hawk's  camp  at  the  Prophet's  town,  made  April  25-27,  by 
Henry  Gratiot,  Indian  agent  for  the  Rock  River  band  of 
Winnebagoes.  Gratiot  bore  one  of  the  messages  from 
Atkinson,  which  Black  Hawk  declined  to  receive.  See  Wis. 
Hist.  Colls.,  ii.,  p.  336 ;  x.,  pp.  235,  493,  for  details  of  this 
mission,  and  sketch  of  Gratiot. 

1  See  roster  in  Armstrong's  The  Sanks  and  the  Black  Hawk 
War  (Springfield,  111.,  1887),  appendix.  Abraham  Lincoln, 
afterwards  President  of  the  United  States,  was  captain  of  a 
company  in  the  Fourth  (Thompson's)  regiment.  Wakefield, 
the  historian,  served  in  Henry's  spy  battalion.  Jefferson 
Davis,  later  president  of  the  Confederacy,  was  a  lieutenant 
of  Co.  B.,  First  United  States  infantry,  which  was  stationed 
at  Fort  Crawford  (Prairie  du  Chien)  during  January  and 
February,  1832,  but  Davis  himself  is  on  the  rolls  as  "absent 
on  detached  service  at  the  Dubuque  mines  by  order  of 
Colonel  Morgan."  He  was  absent  from  his  company  on 
furlough,  from  March  26  to  August  18,  1832 ;  hence,  it  would 


The  Black  Hawk  War  145 

teen  hundred  strong  —  all  horsemen  except 
three  hundred  who  had  by  mistake  been  en- 
listed as  infantry  —  was  placed  under  the  charge 
of  Brigadier-General  Samuel  Whiteside,  who 
had  previously  been  in  command  of  frontier 
rangers  and  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being 
a  good  Indian  fighter.  Accompanied  by  Gov- 
ernor Reynolds,  the  brigade  proceeded  to  Fort 
Armstrong,  which  was  reached  on  the  seventh 
of  May,  and  General  Atkinson  swore  the  volun- 
teers into  United  States  service.  The  governor, 
who  remained  with  his  troops,  was  recognized 
and  paid  as  a  major-general ;  while  Lieutenant 
Robert  Anderson  (later  of  Fort  Sumter  fame) 
was  detailed  from  the  regulars  to  be  inspector- 
general  of  the  Illinois  militia. 

On  the  ninth,  the  start  was  made,  Black 
The  army  Hawk's  trail  Up  the  east  bank  of  the 
sets  out  Rock  being  pursued  by  Whiteside 
and  the  mounted   volunteers.     Atkinson    fol- 

appear  from  the  records  that  he  took  no  part  in  the  Black 
Hawk  War  further  than  to  escort  the  chief  to  Jefferson 
Barracks.  Nevertheless,  an  anonymous  campaign  biography 
of  Davis,  published  at  Jackson,  Miss.,  1851,  in  the  interest  of 
his  candidacy  for  the  governorship,  and  presumably  inspired 
by  the  candidate  himself,  says  that  he  "  earned  his  full  share 
of  the  glories,  by  partaking  of  the  dangers  and  hardships  of 
the  campaign.  Here  he  remained  in  the  active  discharge  of 
his  duties,  and  participating  in  most  of  the  skirmishes  and 
battles,  until  shortly  after  the  battle  of  Bad  Axe." 


146       Essays  in  Western  History 

lowed  in  boats  with  cannon,  provisions,  and 
the  bulk  of  the  baggage ;  with  him  were  the 
three  hundred  volunteer  footmen  and  four 
hundred  regular  infantry,  the  latter  gathered 
from  Forts  Crawford  (Prairie  du  Chien)  and 
Leavenworth,  and  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Zachary  Taylor,  afterwards  President 
of  the  United  States.^  The  rest  of  the  baggage 
was  taken  by  Whiteside's  land  force  in  wagons. 
The  travelling  was  bad  for  both  divisions.  The 
heavy  rains  had  swollen  the  stream ;  the  men 
frequently  waded  breast  deep  for  hours  to- 
gether, pushing  the  keel  and  Mackinac  boats 
against  the  rapid  current  and  Hfting  them  over 
the  rapids ;  while  upon  the  swampy  trails  the 
baggage  wagons  were  often  mired,  and  the 
horsemen  obliged  to  do  rough  service  in  push- 
ing and  hauling  freight  through  the  black  muck 
and  over  tangled  roots.  For  many  days  the 
troops  had  not  a  dry  thread  upon  them ;  the 
tents  were  found  to  be  of  poor  quality,  and  but 
meagre  protection  from  the  driving  storms  on 
the  Illinois  prairies.^ 

1  Major  William  S.  Harney,  the  hero  of  Cerro  Gordo,  also 
served  with  the  regulars  in  this  campaign. 

2  "  A  great  portion  of  the  volunteers  had  been  raised  in 
the  backwoods,  and  rafting  and  swimming  streams  were 
familiar  to  them."  —  Reynolds,  p.  226. 


I 


The  Black  Hawk  War  147 

Whiteside  was  thus  enabled  to  out-distance 
Atkinson.  Arriving  at  the  Prophet's  town, 
he  found  it  deserted  and  the  trail  up  the  river 
fresh,  so  he  pushed  on  as  rapidly  as  possible 
to  Dixon's,  where  he  arrived  on  the  twelfth. 
Here  he  found  two  independent  battalions, 
three  hundred  and  forty-one  men  all  told, 
under  Majors  Isaiah  Stillman  and  David 
Bailey.^  They  had  been  at  the  ferry  for  some 
days,  with  abundance  of  ammunition  and 
supplies,  in  which  latter  Whiteside  was  now 
deficient.  These  commands  were  not  of  the 
regular  levy,  and  objected  to  joining  the  main 
army  except  on  detached  service  as  rangers. 
Imbued  with  reckless  enthusiasm,  they  were 
impatient  at  the  slow  advance  of  the  expedi- 
tion, and  anxious  at  once  to  do  something 
brilliant,  feeling  confident  that  all  that  was 
necessary  to  end  the  war  was  for  them  to  be 
given  a  chance  to  meet  the  enemy  in  open 
battle. 

Obtaining  Whiteside's  permission  to  go 
smiman's  forward  in  the  capacity  of  a  scout- 
scouts  ing  party,  the  independents  set  out 

bravely  on  the  morning  of  the  thirteenth,  under 

1  This  made  the  total  volunteer  force  1,935  "^^n.  The 
Stillman  and  Bailey  battalions  were  afterwards  organized  as 
the  Fifth  Regiment,  under  Colonel  James  Johnson. 


148       Essays  in  Western  History 

Stillman.  Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  four- 
teenth they  pitched  camp  in  a  small  clump  of 
open  timber,  three  miles  southwest  of  the 
mouth  of  Sycamore  Creek.  It  was  a  peculiarly 
strong  position  for  defence.  The  troop  com- 
pletely filled  the  grove,  which  was  surrounded 
by  a  broad,  undulating  prairie.  With  an 
Indian  enemy  averse  to  fighting  in  the  open, 
the  troopers  might  readily  have  repulsed  ten 
times  their  own  number. 

Black  Hawk  had  tarried  a  week  at  the 
Prophet's  town,  holding  fruitless  councils  with 
Tribemen  the  wily  and  vacillating  Winnebagoes. 
in  council  pje  now  for  the  first  time  learned 
positively  that  he  had  been  deceived.  But 
to  keep  his  engagement  at  Sycamore  Creek, 
he  pushed  on,  faint  at  heart,  though  vaguely 
hoping  better  things  of  the  Potawatomis. 
Going  into  camp  with  his  principal  men,  in  a 
large  grove  near  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  he 
met  the  chiefs  of  that  tribe,  and  soon  found 
that  Shaubena's  counsels  had  rendered  it  im- 
possible to  gain  over  to  his  cause  more  than 
about  a  hundred  of  the  hot-head  element. 
Black  Hawk  asserted  in  after  years  that  he  had 
at  this  juncture  fully  resolved  to  return  at  once 
to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi  should  he  again 
be  summoned  to  do  so  by  General  Atkinson, 


The  Black  Hawk  War  149 

never  more  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  white 
settlements.  As  a  parting  courtesy  to  his 
guests,  however,  he  was  on  the  evening  of  the 
fourteenth  making  arrangements  to  give  them 
a  dog  feast,  when  the  summons  came  in  a 
manner  httle  anticipated. 

The  white-hating  faction  of  the  Potawato- 
mis  was  encamped  on  the  Kishwaukee  River 
some  seven  miles  north  of  Black  Hawk,  and 
with  them  the  majority  of  his  own  party.  The 
Hawk  says  that  not  more  than  forty  of  his 
braves  were  with  him  upon  the  council  ground. 
Towards  sunset,  in  the  midst  of  his  prepara- 
tions, he  was  informed  that  a  party  of  white 
horsemen  were  going  into  camp  three  miles 
down  the  Rock.  It  was  Stillman's  corps,  but 
the  Sauk  —  then  unaware  of  the  size  of  the  force 
which  had  been  placed  in  the  field  against  him 
—  thought  it  a  small  party  headed  by  Atkinson, 
and  sent  three  of  his  young  men  with  a  white 
flag,  to  parley  with  the  new  arrivals  and  con- 
vey his  offer  to  meet  the  White  Beaver  in 
council.^ 

The  rangers,  who  had  regarded  the  expedi- 
tion as  a  big  frohc,  were  engaged  in  preparing 
their  camp,  in   irregular  picnic   fashion,  when 

1  Autobiography,  pp.  117,  118. 


150       Essays  in  Western  History 

the  truce-bearers  appeared  upon  a  prairie 
knoll,  nearly  a  mile  away.  A  mob  of  the 
troopers,  in  helter-skelter  form,  some  with 
saddles  on  their  horses  and  some  without, 
rushed  out  upon  the  astonished  envoys,  and 
hurried  them  into  camp  amid  a  hubbub  of 
yells  and  imprecations.  Black  Hawk  had  sent 
five  other  braves  to  follow  the  flagmen  at  a 
safe  distance,  and  watch  developments.  This 
second  party  was  sighted  by  about  twenty  of 
the  horsemen,  who  had  been  scouring  the 
plain  for  more  Indians.  They  were  said  to 
have  been,  like  others  of  Stillman's  men  at  the 
time,  much  excited  by  the  too  free  use  of 
intoxicants.  Hot  chase  was  given  to  the  spies, 
and  two  of  them  were  killed.  The  other  three 
galloped  back  to  the  council  grove  and  re- 
ported to  their  chief  that  not  only  two  of  their 
own  number,  but  the  three  flag-bearers  as  well, 
had  been  cruelly  slain.  This  flagrant  disregard 
of  the  rules  of  war  caused  the  blood  of  the  old 
Sauk  to  boil  with  righteous  indignation.  Tear- 
ing to  shreds  the  flag  of  truce  which,  when  the 
spies  broke  in  upon  him,  he  himself  had  been 
preparing  to  carry  to  the  white  camp,  he 
fiercely  harangued  his  thirty-five  braves  and 
bade  them,  at  any  risk,  to  avenge  the  blood 
of  their  tribesmen. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 5 1 

The  neutral  Potawatomi  visitors  at  once 
withdrew  from  the  grove  and  hastily  sped  to 
Siiiiman's  their  villages,  while  Black  Hawk  and 
defeat  j^jg  p^j-^y  ^f  f^j-^y  Sauks,  ^  Sallied  forth 
on  their  ponies  to  meet  the  enemy.  The  entire 
white  force,  over  three  hundred  strong,  was 
soon  seen  rushing  towards  them  in  a  confused 
mass.  The  Sauks  withdrew  behind  a  fringe 
of  bushes,  their  leader  hurriedly  bidding  them 
to  stand  firm.  On  catching  a  glimpse  of  the 
grim  array  awaiting  them,  the  whites  paused ; 
but  before  they  had  a  chance  to  turn,  the  Hawk 
sounded  the  war-whoop,  and  the  savages  dashed 
forward  and  fired.  The  Sauk  chief  tells  us  that 
when  he  ordered  it,  he  thought  the  charge 
suicidal,  but,  enraged  at  the  treachery  of  the 
troopers,  he  and  all  with  him  were  willing  to 
die  in  securing  reprisal. 

On  the  first  fire  of  the  Indians,  the  whites, 
without  returning  the  volley,  fled  in  great 
consternation,  pursued  by  about  twenty-five 
savages,  until  nightfall  ended  the  chase.  But 
nightfall  did  not  end  the  rout.  The  volunteers, 
beset  by  the  genius  of  fear,  dashed  through 

1  "  Black  Hawk  in  his  book  says  he  had  only  forty  in  all, 
and  judging  from  all  I  can  discover  in  the  premises,  I  believe 
the  number  of  warriors  were  between  fifty  and  sixty."  — 
Reynolds,  p.  234. 


152       Essays  in  Western  History 

their  own  impregnable  camp,  left  everything 
behind  them,  and  plunged  madly  through 
swamps  and  creeks  till  they  reached  Dixon's, 
twenty-five  miles  away,  where  they  straggled 
in  for  the  next  twenty  hours.  Many  of  them 
did  not  stop  there,  but  kept  on  at  a  keen  gallop 
till  they  reached  their  own  firesides,  fifty  or 
more  miles  farther,  carrying  the  report  that 
Black  Hawk  and  two  thousand  bloodthirsty 
warriors  were  sweeping  all  Northern  Illinois 
with  the  besom  of  destruction.  The  white 
casualties  in  this  ill-starred  foray  amounted  to 
eleven  killed,  while  the  Indians  lost  the  two 
spies  and  but  one  of  the  flag-bearers,  who  had 
been  treacherously  shot  in  Stillman's  camp  — 
his  companions  owing  their  lives  to  the  fleet- 
ness  of  their  ponies. 

The  flight  of  Stillman's  corps  was  wholly 
inexcusable.  It  should,  in  any  event,  have 
stopped  at  the  camp,  which  was  easily  defen- 
sible.^    Stillman,  no  doubt,  exerted  himself  to 

1  "  I  never  was  so  surprised,  in  all  the  fighting  I  have 
seen — knowing,  too,  that  the  Americans,  generally,  shoot 
well  — as  I  was  to  see  this  army  of  several  hundreds,  retreat- 
ing without  showing  fight,  and  passing  immediately  through 
this  encampment.  I  did  think  that  they  intended  to  hault 
here,  as  the  situation  would  have  forbidden  attack  by  my 
party,  if  their  number  had  not  exceeded  half  mine,  as  we 
would  have  been  compelled  to  take  the  open  prairie,  whilst 


The  Black  Hawk  War  153 

his  utmost  to  rally  his  men,  but  they  lacked 
discipline  and  that  experience  which  gives 
soldiers  confidence  in  their  officers  and  each 
other.  Their  worst  fault  was  their  dishonor- 
able treatment  of  bearers  of  a  flag  of  truce,  a 
symbol  which  few  savage  tribes  disregard.  But 
for  this  act  of  treachery,  the  Black  Hawk  War 
might  have  been  a  bloodless  demonstration. 
Unfortunately  for  our  own  good  name,  this 
violation  of  the  rules  of  war  was  more  than 
once  repeated  by  the  Americans  during  the 
contest  which  followed. 

From  this  easy  and  unexpected  victory, 
Black  Hawk  formed  a  low  opinion  of  the  valor 
of  the  militiamen,  and  at  the  same  time  an 
The  Hawk  ^^^gg^^'^ted  estimate  of  the  prowess 
at  Kosh-  of  his  own  braves.  Almost  wholly 
onong  destitute  of  provisions  and  ammu- 
nition, he  was  elated  at  the  capture  of  Still- 
man's  abundant  stores.  Recognizing  that  war 
had  been  forced  upon  him^  and  was  hence- 

they  could  have  picked  trees  to  shield  themselves  from  our 
fire."  —  Autobiography,  p.  122. 

1  "I  had  resolved  upon  giving  up  the  war, and  sent  a  flag 
of  peace  to  the  American  war  chief,  expecting  as  a  matter  of 
right,  reason,  and  justice,  that  our  flag  would  be  respected  (I 
have  always  seen  it  so  in  war  among  the  whites),  and  a  coun- 
cil convened,  that  we  might  explain  our  grievances,  having 
been  driven  from  our  village  the   year  before,  without  per- 


154       Essays  in  Western  History 

forth  inevitable,  he  despatched  scouts  to  watch 
the  white  army  while  he  hurriedly  removed 
his  women  and  children,  by  way  of  the  Kish- 
waukee,  to  the  swampy  fastnesses  of  Lake 
Koshkonong,  near  the  headwaters  of  Rock 
River,  in  Michigan  Territory  (now  Wisconsin). 
He  was  guided  thither  by  friendly  Winneba- 
goes,  who  deemed  the  position  impregnable. 
From  here,  recruited  by  parties  of  Winne- 
bagoes  and  Potawatomis,  Black  Hawk  de- 
scended into  Northern  Illinois,  prepared  for 
active  border  warfare. 

The  story  of  Stillman's  defeat  inaugurated  a 
A  reign  rcign  of  terror  between  the  Illinois 
of  terror  ^^^  Wisconsin  rivcrs,  and  much  con- 
sternation throughout  the  entire  West.  The 
name  of  Black  Hawk,  whose    forces  and  the 

mission  to  gather  the  corn  and  provisions,  which  our  women 
had  labored  hard  to  cultivate,  and  ask  permission  to  re- 
turn, —  thereby  giving  up  all  idea  of  going  to  war  against 
the  whites.  Yet,  instead  of  this  honorable  course  which  I 
have  always  practised  in  war,  I  was  forced  into  war,  with 
about  five  hundred  warriors,  to  contend  against  three  or  four 
thousand. 

"  The  supplies  that  Neapope  and  the  Prophet  told  us 
about,  and  the  reinforcements  we  were  to  have,  were  never 
more  heard  of,  and  it  is  but  justice  to  our  British  father  to 
say,  were  never  promised  —  his  chief  having  sent  word  in 
lieu  of  the  lies  that  were  brought  to  me,  '  for  us  to  remain  at 
peace,  as  we  could  accomplish  nothing  but  our  own  ruin,  by 
going  to  war.*"  —  Autobiography,  pp.  123,  124. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  155 

nature  of  whose  expedition  were  grossly  exag- 
gerated, became  associated  the  country  over 
with  tales  of  savage  cunning  and  cruelty.  The 
bloodthirsty  Sauk  long  served  as  a  household 
bugaboo.  Shaubena  and  his  friends  again 
rode  post-haste  through  the  settlements,  sound- 
ing the  alarm.  Many  of  the  frontiersmen, 
lulled  into  a  sense  of  security  by  the  long 
calm  following  the  invasion  at  Yellow  Banks, 
had  returned  to  their  fields.  But  there  was 
now  a  hurrying  back  into  the  forts;  they 
flew  like  chickens  to  cover,  on  the  warn- 
ing of  the  Hawk's  foray.  The  rustle  in 
the  underbrush  of  a  prowling  beast;  the 
howl  of  a  wolf  on  the  prairie ;  the  fall  of  a 
forest  bough;  the  report  of  a  hunter's  gun, 
were  sufficient  in  this  time  of  panic  to  blanch 
the  cheeks  of  the  bravest  men,  and  cause 
families  to  fly  in  the  agony  of  fear  for  scores 
of  miles,  leaving  all  their  possessions  behind 
them.^ 

1  Wakefield,  pp.  56-60,  relates  some  amusing  and  appar- 
ently truthful  anecdotes  of  the  scare.  Here  is  one  of  them  : 
"  In  the  hurried  rout  that  took  place  at  this  time,  there  was  a 
family  that  lived  near  the  [Iroquois]  river  [in  northeastern 
Illinois] ;  they  had  no  horses,  but  a  large  family  of  small 
children  ;  the  father  and  mother  each  took  a  child  ;  the  rest 
were  directed  to  follow  on  foot  as  fast  as  possible.  The 
eldest  daughter  also  carried  one  of  the  children  that  was  not 
able  to  keep  up.     They  fled  to  the  river  where  they  had  to 


156       Essays  in  Western  History 

On  the  day  of  the  defeat,  Whiteside,  with  a 
thousand  four  hundred  men,  proceeded  to  the 
The  army  field  of  battle  and  buried  the  dead. 
disbanded  Qn  the  nineteenth,  Atkinson  and  the 
entire  army  moved  up  the  Rock,  leaving  Still- 
man's  corps  at  Dixon  to  care  for  the  wounded 
and  guard  the  supplies.  But  the  army  was  no 
sooner  out  of  sight  than  Stillman's  cowards 
added  infamy  to  their  record,  by  deserting 
their  post  and  going  home.  Atkinson  hastily 
returned  to  Dixon  with  the  regulars,  leaving 
Whiteside  to  follow  Black  Hawk's  trail  up  the 
Kishwaukee. 

Whiteside's  men,  however,  now  began  to 
weary  of  soldiering.     They  declared  that  the 

cross.  The  father  had  to  carry  over  all  the  children,  at 
different  times,  as  the  stream  was  high,  and  so  rapid  the 
mother  and  daughter  could  not  stem  the  current  with  such  a 
burden.  When  they  all,  as  they  thought,  had  got  over,  they 
started,  when  the  cry  of  poor  little  Susan  was  heard  on  the 
opposite  bank,  asking  if  they  were  not  going  to  take  her  with 
them.  The  frightened  father  again  prepared  to  plunge  into 
the  strong  current  for  his  child,  when  the  mother  seeing  it, 
cried  out,  *  Never  mind  Susan  ;  we  have  succeeded  in  getting 
ten  over,  which  is  more  than  we  expected  at  first  —  and  we 
can  better  spare  Susan  than  you,  my  dear.'  So  poor  Susan, 
who  was  only  about  four  years  old,  was  left  to  the  mercy  of 
the  frightful  savages.  But  poor  little  Susan  came  off  unhurt  ; 
one  of  the  neighbors,  who  was  out  hunting,  came  along  and 
took  charge  of  little  Susan,  the  eleventh,  who  had  been  so 
miserably  treated  by  her  mother." 


I 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 5  7 

Indians  had  gone  into  the  unexplored  and 
impenetrable  swamps  of  the  north,  and  could 
never  be  captured ;  even  were  that  possible, 
Illinois  volunteers  were  not  compelled  to  serve 
out  of  the  State,  in  Michigan  Territory;  they 
also  claimed  to  have  enlisted  for  but  one 
month.  After  two  or  three  days'  fruitless 
skirmishing,  and  before  reaching  the  State 
line,  the  council  of  officers  determined  to 
abandon  search.  Turning  about,  they  marched 
southward  to  Ottawa,  where  they  were,  on 
the  twenty-seventh  and  twenty-eighth  of  May, 
at  their  own  request,  mustered  out  of  the  ser- 
vice by  Governor  Reynolds.  En  route  from 
the  Kishwaukee  to  Ottawa,  the  militiamen 
stopped  at  the  Davis  farm  on  Indian  Creek, 
where  a  massacre  of  whites  (p.  160)  had  oc- 
curred a  few  days  before,  and  the  mutilated 
corpsesof  fifteen  men,  women,  and  children  were 
lying  on  the  greensward,  unsepulchred.  This 
revolting  spectacle,  instead  of  nerving  the 
troops  to  renewed  action  in  defence  of  their 
homes,  appears  to  have  still  further  disheartened 
them.^ 

Thus    did   the    first   campaign   of  the   war 
end,  as  it  had   begun,  with    an  exhibition  of 

1  See  Reynolds's  statement  of  the  case,  in  My  Own  Times, 
pp.  238,  239. 


158       Essays  in  Western  History 

rank  cowardice  on  the  part  of  the  Illinois 
militia. 

Governor  Reynolds  was  active,  and  at  once 
arranged  for  a  fresh  levy  of  "  at  least  two 
Afresh  thousand  "  men  to  serve  through  the 
"^^  war,   to    rendezvous    at   Beardstown, 

June  10;  while  the  federal  government  ordered 
a  thousand  regulars  under  General  Winfield 
Scott  to  proceed  from  the  seaboard  to  the  seat 
of  war,  Scott  being  directed  to  conduct  all 
future  operations  against  the  enemy.  Mean- 
while, at  Atkinson's  earnest  appeal,  three 
hundred  mounted  volunteer  rangers,  under 
Henry  Frye  as  colonel  and  James  D.  Henry 
as  lieutenant-colonel,  agreed  to  remain  in  the 
field  to  protect  the  northern  line  of  Illinois 
settlements  until  the  new  levy  could  be 
mobilized.^ 

1  General  Whiteside  enlisted  as  a  private  in  this  battalion. 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  also  a  member,  being  enlisted  May  27 
as  a  "  private  horseman,"  in  Captain  Elijah  Iles's  company. 
He  was  mustered  out  at  Ottawa,  June  16,  when  the  regular 
levy  had  taken  the  field.  June  20  he  re-enlisted  in  Captain 
Jacob  M.  Early's  company,  an  independent  body  of  rangers 
not  brigaded,  and  served  throughout  the  war.  Besides  these 
three  hundred  volunteer  rangers,  divided  into  six  companies, 
General  Atkinson  had  some  three  hundred  regulars  on  Rock 
River,  the  entire  force  available  to  check  the  enemy,  imtil 
the  new  levy  could  assemble. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  159 

Black  Hawk,  upon  descending  Rock  River 
from  Lake  Koshkonong,  divided  his  people 
Irregular  into  war-parties,  himself  leading  the 
hostilities  i^j.ggg|.^  dhoM"^  two  hundred  strong. 
He  was  assisted  by  small  scalping  parties 
of  Winnebagoes,  who  were  always  ready  for 
guerilla  butchery  when  the  chance  for  detec- 
tion was  slight,  and  by  about  a  hundred  Pota- 
watomis  under  Mike  Girty. 

During  the  irregular  hostilities  which  now 
broke  out  in  northern  Illinois  and  just  across 
the  Michigan  (now  Wisconsin)  border,  pending 
the  resumption  of  the  formal  campaign,  some 
two  hundred  whites  and  nearly  as  many  Indians 
lost  their  lives,  great  suffering  was  induced 
among  the  settlers,  and  panic  among  the  latter 
was  widespread.  Many  of  the  incidents  of  this 
partisan  strife  are  rich  in  historic  and  romantic 
interest  and  have  been  productive  of  elaborate 
discussions  in  the  press  and  in  documentary 
collections ;  but  in  a  paper  of  this  scope  only 
a  few  of  the  most  striking  events  can  be  al- 
luded to.^ 

1  Nearly  every  volume  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Collec- 
tions contains  articles  and  documents  bearing  on  this  war, 
which  it  would  be  burdensome  to  cite  here  in  detail ;  many 
of  them  are  invaluable,  while  some,  in  the  light  of  later  de- 
velopments, are  worthless. 


i6o       Essays  in  Western  History 

On  the  twenty-second  of  May  a  party  of 
thirty  Potawatomis  and  three  Sauks,  under 
Notable  Girty,  surprised  and  slaughtered 
skirmtshes  fifteen  men,  women,  and  children 
congregated  at  the  Davis  farm,  on  Indian 
Creek,  twelve  miles  north  of  Ottawa,  Illinois. 
Two  daughters  of  William  Hall  —  Sylvia,  aged 
seventeen  years,  and  Rachel,  aged  fifteen  — 
were  spared  by  their  captors.  Being  taken  to 
Black  Hawk's  stronghold  above  Lake  Kosh- 
konong,  they  were  there  sold  for  two  thousand 
dollars  in  horses  and  trinkets  to  White  Crow, 
a  Winnebago  chief  who  had  been  sent  out  by 
Henry  Gratiot,  sub-agent  for  the  Winnebagoes, 
to  conduct  the  negotiation.  The  girls  were 
safely  delivered  into  Gratiot's  hands  at  Blue 
Mounds,  on  the  third  of  June. 

On  the  evening  of  the  fourteenth  of  June,  a 
party  of  eleven  Sauks  killed  five  white  men  at 
Spafford's  farm,  on  the  Peckatonica  River,  in 
what  is  now  La  Fayette  County,  Wisconsin. 
Colonel  Henry  Dodge,  with  twenty-nine  men, 
followed,  and  the  next  day  overtook  the  savages 
in  a  neighboring  swamp.  In  a  hot  brush  last- 
ing but  a  few  minutes,  the  eleven  Indians  were 
killed  and  scalped,  while  of  Dodge's  party 
three  were  killed  and  one  wounded.  The  de- 
tails of  no  event  in  the  entire  war  have  been 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 6 1 

so  thoroughly  discussed  and  quarrelled  over  as 
those  of  this  brief  but  bloody  skirmish.^ 

On  the  twenty-fourth  of  June,  Black  Hawk's 
own  party  made  a  desperate  attack  on  Apple 
River  Fort,  fourteen  miles  east  of  Galena, 
Illinois.  For  upwards  of  an  hour  the  little 
garrison  sustained  the  heavy  siege,  displaying 
remarkable  vigor,  the  women  and  girls  moulding 
bullets,  loading  pieces,  and  in  general  proving 
themselves  border  heroines.  The  red  men 
retired  with  small  loss,  after  laying  waste  by 
fire  the  neighboring  cabins  and  fields.  The 
following  day  this  same  war  party  attacked, 
with  singular  ferocity.  Major  Dement's  spy 
battalion  of  Posey's  brigade,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  strong,  at  Kellogg's  Grove,  sixteen  miles 
to  the  east.  General  Posey  came  up  with  a 
detachment  of  volunteers  to  relieve  the  force, 
and  continued  the  skirmish.  The  Indians  were 
routed,  losing  about  fifteen  killed,  while  the 
whites  lost  but  five.^ 

1  Notably  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  ii.,  iv.,  v.,  vi.,  vii.,  viii.,  x. 

2  Kellogg's  Grove,  afterwards  Waddams's,  and  now 
Timms's,  is  situated  in  the  southwestern  portion  of  Kent 
township,  Stephenson  County,  Illinois,  about  nine  miles 
south  of  Lena.  The  five  men  killed  in  the  skirmish  of  June 
25,  1832,  had  been  buried  at  different  points  within  the 
grove.  During  the  summer  of  1886  their  remains  were  col- 
lected by  order  of  the  county  board   of  supervisors,  and 


1 62       Essays  in  Westerti  History 

At  Plum  River  Fort,  Burr  Oak  Grove,  Sin- 
siniwa  Mound,  and  Blue  Mounds,  skirmishes 
of  less  importance  were  fought. 

The  people  of  the  lead-mining  settlements  in 
what  is  now  southwestern  Wisconsin,  deemed 
The  lead-  themsclvcs  peculiarly  liable  to  attack, 
minedis-  fearing  that  the  troops  centred  on 
Rock  River  would  drive  the  enemy 
upon  them  across  the  Illinois  border.  The 
news  of  the  invasion  at  Yellow  Banks  was 
received  by  the  miners  early  in  May,  and  ac- 
tive preparations  for  defence  and  offence  were 
at  once  undertaken.  Colonel  Henry  Dodge, 
one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  lead  region,  and 
an  energetic  citizen  largely  interested  in 
smelting,  held  a  commission  as  chief  of  the 
Michigan  militia  west  of  Lake  Michigan,  and 
assumed  direction  of  military  operations  north 
of  the  Illinois  line.  With  a  company  of 
twenty-seven  hastily  equipped  mounted  rang- 
ers he  made  an  expedition  to  Dixon,  with  a 
view    both    to   reconnoitre    the    country   and 

decently  interred  upon  a  commanding  knoll  at  the  edge  of 
the  copse.  With  these  were  placed  those  of  five  or  six  other 
victims  of  the  Black  Hawk  War,  who  had  fallen  in  other 
portions  of  the  county.  Over  these  remains,  a  monument 
costing  five  hundred  dollars  was  erected  by  the  board,  being 
formally  dedicated  September  30,  1886,  under  the  auspices 
of  W.  R.  Goddard  post  of  the  G.  A.  R. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  i6 


J 


solicit  aid  from  Governor  Reynolds's  force. 
He  failed  in  this  latter  mission,  however,  and 
returned  to  the  mines  carrying  the  news  of 
Stillman's  defeat.^  After  making  prepa:fa- 
tions  for  recruiting  three  additional  compa- 
nies, Dodge  proceeded  with  Indian  Agent 
Gratiot  and  a  troop  of  fifty  volunteers  to 
White  Crow's  Winnebago  village  at  the  head 
of  Lake  Mendota  (Fourth  Lake),  on  a  point 
of  land  now  known  as  Fox's  Bluff,  some  four 
miles  northwest  of  the  present  Madison.  The 
Winnebagoes  were  always  deemed  a  source 
of  danger  to  the  mining  settlements,  and  it 
was  desirable  to  keep  them  quiet  during  the 
present  crisis.  Colonel  Dodge  held  council 
with  them  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  May,  and 
received  profuse  assurances  of  their  fidelity  to 
the  American  cause;  but  the  partisan  leader 
appears  to  have  justly  placed  small  reliance 
upon  their  sincerity.^ 

1  "General  Dodge  was  camped  in  the  vicinity  [Dixon's], 
on  the  north  side  of  Rock  River,  and  I  wrote  him,  at  night 
[May  14-15],  the  facts  of  Stillman's  disaster,  and  that  his 
frontiers  of  Wisconsin  would  be  in  danger.  He  returned 
immediately  to  Wisconsin."  —  Reynolds,  p.  235. 

2  Dodge's  "  talk"  is  given  in  Smith's ^w/i^rj/  of  Wisconsin 
(Madison,  1854),  i.,  pp.  416,  417.  See  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  ii., 
p.  339,  for  White  Crow's  taunt  flung  at  Dodge,  that  the  whites 
were  "  a  soft-shelled  breed,"  and  could  not  fight.  For  sketch 
of  this  chief  —  whose  Indian  name  was  Kaukishkaka  (The 


164       Essays  in  Western  History 

Returning  from  this  council,  Dodge  set  out 
from  his  headquarters  at  Fort  Union  on  an 
Dodge's  active  campaign  with  two  hundred 
Rough  mounted  rangers  enh'sted  for  the  war. 
These  men,  gathered  from  the  mines 
and  fields,  were  a  free-and-easy  set  of  fellows, 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  adventure  and  an 
intense  hatred  of  the  Indian  race.  While  dis- 
ciplined to  the  extent  of  obeying  orders  when- 
ever sent  into  the  teeth  of  danger,  these  Rough 
Riders  of  seventy  years  ago  swung  through  the 
country  with  small  regard  for  the  rules  of  the 
manual,  and  presented  a  striking  contrast  to 
the  habits  and  appearance  of  the  regulars. 

On  the  third  of  June  they  arrived  at  Blue 
Mounds,  just  in  time  to  receive  the  Hall  girls 
brought  in  by  White  Crow.  The  Crow  and 
his  companions  being  now  offensive  in  their 
manner,  Dodge  had  them  thrown  into  the 
guard-house,  and  held  for  a  time  as  hostages 
for  the  good  behavior  of  the  rest  of  the  Lake 
Mendota  band.  On  the  eleventh,  he  was 
joined  by  a  small  party  of  Illinois  rangers 
from  Galena,  under  Captain  J.  W.  Stephenson, 
the  united  force  proceeding  to  Atkinson's  re- 
Blind),  he  having  lost  an  eye  in  a  brawl  —  see  id.^  x.,  pp.  495, 
496.  Washburne's  estimate  of  him,  ibid.^  p.  253,  is  unfavor- 
able ;  others  of  his  white  contemporaries  speak  with  enthu- 
siasm of  his  strength  as  a  native  orator,  and  his  manly  bearing. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  165 

cruiting  quarters,  then  at  Ottawa,  where  Dodge 
conferred  with  the  general  as  to  the  future 
conduct  of  the  campaign.  After  remaining  a 
few  days,  the  rangers  returned  to  the  lead 
mines  to  complete  the  local  defences. 

In  less  than  three  weeks  from  the  date  of 
Stillman's  defeat,  Atkinson  and  Reynolds  had 
The  new  together  recruited  and  organized  a 
army  ^g^  mounted    militia   force,  and  on 

the  fifteenth  of  June  the  troops  rendezvoused 
at  Fort  Wilburn  (near  Peru).  There  were 
three  brigades,  respectively  headed  by  Gen- 
erals Alexander  Posey,  M.  K.  Alexander,  and 
James  D.  Henry.  Each  brigade  contained 
a  spy  battalion.  The  aggregate  strength  of 
this  volunteer  army  was  three  thousand  two 
hundred,  which  was  in  addition  to  Frye's 
rangers,  half  of  whom  continued  their  ser- 
vices to  protect  the  settlements  and  stores 
west  of  the  Rock  River.  With  these,  Dodge's 
rangers,  and  the  regular  infantry,  the  entire 
army  now  in  the  field  numbered  about  four 
thousand  effective  men. 

A  party  of  Posey's  brigade  was  sent  in  ad- 
Thead-  vancc  from  Fort  Wilburn  to  scour 
^Koshko-  ^^^  country  between  Galena  and  the 
nong  Rock,  and  disperse  Black  Hawk's  war- 

party.    It  was  this  force  that  had  the  brush  with 


1 66       Essays  in  Western  History 

the  Sauks  at  Kellogg's  Grove  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  June,  already  alluded  to.  Meanwhile, 
Alexander's  and  Henry's  brigades  had  arrived 
overland  at  Dixon's.  On  arrival  of  news  of 
the  defeat  of  the  Indians  at  Kellogg's,  Alex- 
ander was  despatched  in  haste  to  Plum  River 
to  intercept  the  fugitives  should  they  attempt 
to  cross  the  Mississippi  at  that  point;  while 
Atkinson,  with  Henry  and  the  regulars,  re- 
mained at  Dixon's  to  await  developments. 
On  learning  that  Black  Hawk's  main  camp  was 
still  near  Lake  Koshkonong,  Atkinson  at  once 
marched  up  the  east  bank  of  the  Rock,  leaving 
Dixon's  on  the  afternoon  of  June  27.  The 
main  army,  now  consisting  of  four  hundred 
regulars  and  two  thousand  one  hundred  volun- 
teer troops,  was  joined  the  following  day  by 
a  party  of  seventy-five  friendly  Potawatoniis, 
who  seemed  eager  to  join  in  the  prospective 
scrimmage. 

On  the  thirtieth,  the  army  crossed  the  Illinois- 
Wisconsin  boundary  about  one  mile  east  of  the 
site  of  Beloit,  near  the  Turtle  village  of  the 
Winnebagoes,  whose  inhabitants  had  flown  at 
the  approach  of  the  column.^     Sauk  signs  were 

1  In  the  Beloit  Weekly  Free  Press  for  October  15,  1891, 
and  January  21,  1892,  Cornelius  Buckley  discusses  in  detail 
the  place  of  crossing  the  boundary,  and  the  site  of  Atkinson's 


The  Black  Hawk  War  167 

fresh,  for  after  his  defeat  at  Kellogg's  at  the 
hands  of  Posey  and  Dement,  Black  Hawk 
had,  instead  of  crossing  the  Mississippi,  fled 
directly  to  his  stronghold,  reaching  the  Rock 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Kishwaukee  three  or 
four  days  in  advance  of  the  white  army.  It 
was  this  warm  trail  that  Atkinson's  men,  with 
the  vehemence  of  bloodhounds,  were  now  fol- 
lowing. When  possible,  at  the  close  of  each 
day,  the  troops  selected  a  camp  in  the  timber, 
w^ere  protected  by  breastworks,  and  at  all 
times  slept  on  their  arms,  for  there  was  con- 
stant apprehension  of  a  night  attack;  the 
rear  guard  of  the  savages,  prowling  about  in 
the  dark,  were  frequently  fired  on  by  the 
sentinels. 

The  outlet  of  Lake  Koshkonong  was  reached 
on  the  second  of  July.  Hastily  deserted  Indian 
Prtiitiess  camps  were  found,  with  white  scalps 
scouting  hanging  on  the  poles  of  the  tepees. 
Scouts  made  a  tour  of  the  lake,  but  beyond  a 
few  stragglers  nothing  of  importance  was  seen. 
A  few  Winnebagoes  hanging  upon  the  flanks 
of  the  column  were  captured,  and  after  their 

camp,  which  latter  he  places  "near  the  northeast  corner  of 
the  southwest  quarter  of  section  25,  town  i,  and  range  12, 
and  480  rods  north  of  the  State  line  .  .  .  and  directly  north 
of  the  old  fair  grounds." 


1 68       Essays  in  Western  History 

kind  gave  vague  and  contradictory  testimony ; 
one  of  them  was  shot  and  scalped  for  his 
impertinence.  Several  succeeding  days  were 
spent  in  fruitless  scouting.  July  4,  Alex- 
ander arrived  with  his  brigade,  reporting  that 
he  had  found  no  traces  of  red  men  on  the 
Mississippi.  On  the  sixth,  Posey  reported 
with  Dodge's  squadron. 

Dodge  was  at  Fort  Hamilton  (Wiota)  on 
the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  reorganizing  his 
rangers,  when  Posey  arrived  from  Kellogg's 
Grove,  bringing  from  Atkinson  orders  to  bring 
Dodge's  command  with  him  and  join  the  main 
army  on  the  Koshkonong.  At  Sugar  River, 
Dodge  was  joined  by  Stephenson's  Galena 
company  and  by  a  party  of  twenty  friendly 
Menominees  and  eight  or  ten  white  and  half- 
breed  scouts  under  Colonel  William  S.  Hamil- 
ton, a  son  of  the  famous  Alexander,  and  then 
a  prominent  lead  miner.  This  recruited  his 
Rough  Rider  squadron  so  that  it  now  numbered 
about  three  hundred.  Proceeding  by  the  way 
of  the  Four  Lakes  (neighborhood  of  Madison), 
White  Crow  and  thirty  Winnebagoes  offered 
to  conduct  Posey  and  Dodge  to  Black  Hawk's 
camp,  and  unite  with  them  for  that  purpose. 
After  advancing  for  several  days  through  al- 
most impassable  swamps,  the  corps  were  within 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 69 

short  distance  of  the  locality  sought,  when 
an  express  came  from  Atkinson  ordering  them 
to  proceed  without  delay  to  his  camp  on  Bark 
River,  an  eastern  affluent  of  Lake  Koshkonong, 
for  he  believed  the  main  body  of  the  enemy  to 
be  in  that  vicinity.  This  order  much  provoked 
Dodge,  but  it  proved  to  be  opportune.  Black 
^^^^^  Hawk's    camp    occupied    a   position 

Hawk's  advantageous  for  defence,  at  the  sum- 
ca^^P  mit  of  a  steep  declivity  on  the  east 

bank  of  the  Rock,  where  the  river  was  difficult 
of  passage,  being  rapid  and  clogged  with 
boulders.^  White  Crow's  solicitude  as  a  guide 
was  undoubtedly  caused  by  his  desire  to  lead 
this  small  force,  constituting  the  left  wing  of 
the  army,  into  a  trap  w^here  it  might  have  been 
badly  whipped  if  not  annihilated. 

The  army  was  thus  formed :  Posey's  brigade 
and  Dodge's  rangers  comprised  the  left  wing, 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Rock;  the  regulars 
under  Taylor,  and  Henry's  volunteers,  were 
the  right  wing,  commanded  by  Atkinson  in 
person,  and  marched  on  the  east  bank;  while 
Alexander's  brigade,  also  on  the  west  bank, 
was  the  centre.  While  marching  across 
country.  Dodge  had  conceived  a  poor  opinion 
of  Posey's  men,  and  on  the  arrival  of  the  left 

1  The  site  of  the  present  village  of  Hustisford,  Wisconsin. 


1 70       Essays  in  Western  History 

wing  at  headquarters,  solicited  a  change  of 
companions.  To  secure  harmony,  Atkinson 
caused  Posey  and  Alexander  to  exchange 
positions. 

While  the  treacherous  White  Crow  had  been 
endeavoring  to  entrap  the  left  wing,  other 
Winnebagoes  of  the  neighborhood  informed 
Atkinson  that  Black  Hawk  was  encamped  on 
an  island  in  the  Whitewater  River,  a  few  miles 
east  of  the  American  camp  on  the  Bark.  In 
consequence,  the  commander  was  from  the 
seventh  to  the  ninth  of  July  running  a  wild- 
goose  chase  through  the  broad  morasses  and 
treacherous  sink-holes  of  that  region.  It  was 
because  of  this  fabe  information  that  Atkinson 
had  hastily  summoned  the  left  wing  to  his  aid, 
and  thus  in  the  nick  of  time  unwittingly  saved 
it  from  grave  danger.  Through  lack  of  con- 
cert in  their  lying,  the  wily  Winnebagoes 
failed  of  their  purpose,  for  in  the  meantime 
the  Hawk,  startled  from  his  cover  by  the 
manoeuvring  in  his  neighborhood,  fled  west- 
ward to  the  Wisconsin  River. 

Governor  Reynolds,  and  several  other  promi- 
nent Illinois  men  who  were  with  the 
men  dis-       army,  had  become  discouraged.   They 
courage       therefore  promptly  left  for  home  by 
way   of  Galena,  impressed   with  the   opinion 


m 


The  Black  Hawk  War  171 

that  the  troops,  now  in  wretched  physical  con- 
dition, almost  destitute  of  food,  and  flound- 
ering aimlessly  through  the  Wisconsin  bogs, 
were  pursuing  an  ignis-fatuus  and  the  Black 
Hawk  could  never  be  captured.^ 

On  the  same  day  (July  10),  Henry's  and 
Alexander's  brigades  were  despatched  with 
At  Fort  Dodge's  squadron  to  Fort  Winnebago, 
Winnebago  ^t  the  portagc  of  the  Fox  and  Wis- 
consin rivers,  eighty  miles  to  the  northwest, 
for  much-needed  provisions,  it  being  the 
nearest  supply  point.  The  Second  Regiment 
of  Posey's  brigade,  under  Colonel  Ewing,  was 

1  "  On  the  loth  of  July,  in  the  midst  of  a  considerable 
wilderness,  the  provisions  were  exhausted,  and  the  army  forced 
to  abandon  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy  for  a  short  time. 
Seeing  the  difficulties  to  reach  the  enemy,  and  knowing  the 
extreme  uncertainty  of  ever  reaching  Black  Hawk  by  these 
slow  movements,  caused  most  of  the  army  to  believe  we 
would  never  overtake  the  enemy.  This  condition  of  affairs 
forced  on  all  reflecting  men  much  mortification,  and  regret 
that  this  campaign  also  would  do  nothing.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, a  great  many  worthy  and  respectable  individuals, 
who  were  not  particularly  operative  in  the  service,  returned 
to  their  home.  My  staff  and  myself  left  the  army  at  the 
burnt  village,  on  Rock  River,  above  Lake  Koshkonong,  and 
returned  by  Galena  to  the  frontiers  and  home.  When  I 
reached  Galena,  the  Indian  panic  was  still  raging  with  the 
people  there,  and  I  was  compelled  to  order  out  more  troops 
to  protect  the  citizens  —  although  the  militia  of  the  whole 
country  was  in  service."  —  Reynolds,  pp.  251,  252. 


172       Essays  in  Western  History 

sent  down  the  Rock  to  Dixon's,  with  an  officer 
accidentally  wounded ;  while,  with  the  rest  of 
his  troops,  Posey  was  ordered  to  Fort  Ham- 
ilton to  guard  the  mining  country,  which 
Dodge's  absence  had  left  exposed  to  the 
enemy.  Atkinson  himself  fell  back  to  Lake 
Koshkonong,  and  built  a  fort  a  few  miles  up 
Bark  River,  on  the  eastern  limit  of  the  present 
village  of  Fort  Atkinson. 

On  arrival  at  Fort  Winnebago,  the  troopers 
found  there  a  number  of  Winnebago  Indians, 
all  of  them  free  with  advice  to  the  white  chiefs. 
There  was  also  at  the  fort  a  famous  half-breed 
scout  and  trader  named  Pierre  Paquette,  who 
had  long  been  a  trusted  servant  of  the  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company.  He  informed  Henry  and 
Dodge  of  the  location  of  Black  Hawk's  strong- 
hold, confirming  White  Crow's  story,  but 
with  added  information  as  to  its  character. 
With  twelve  Winnebago  companions,  he  was 
promptly  engaged  as  pilot  thither.  While  the 
division  was  at  the  fort,  there  was,  from  some 
unknown  cause,  a  stampede  of  its  horses,  the 
animals  plunging  madly  for  thirty  miles 
through  the  neighboring  swamps,  where  up- 
wards of  fifty  were  lost.^ 

1  Reynolds,  pp.  254,  255  ;  also  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  x.,  p. 
3»4- 


The  Black  Hawk  War  173 

Henry  and  Dodge,  resolute  Indian  fighters, 
decided  to  return  to  camp  by  way  of  the  Hus- 
tisford  rapids,  and  there  engage  Black  Hawk  if 
Mutinous  possible.  But  Alexander's  men  re- 
conduct  fused  to  enter  upon  this  perilous 
expedition,  and  insisted  on  obeying  Atkin- 
son's orders  to  return  to  headquarters  by 
the  shortest  available  route.  Alexander  easily 
yielded  to  his  troopers'  demands,  and  this 
mutinous  example  would  have  corrupted 
Henry's  brigade  but  for  the  firmness  of  that 
commander,  who  was  a  strict  disciplinarian. 
Alexander  returned  direct  to  camp  (July  15), 
with  the  men  whose  horses  had  been  lost  in 
the  stampede,  and  twelve  days'  provisions  for 
the  main  army.  The  same  day,  Henry  and 
Dodge,  the  former  in  command,  started  out 
with  twelve  days'  supplies  for  their  own  force, 
accompanied  by  Paquette  and  the  Winnebago 
guides.  The  ranks  had  been  depleted  from 
many  causes,  so  that  roll-call  on  the  sixteenth 
disclosed  but  six  hundred  effective  men  in 
Henry's  brigade,  and  about  a  hundred  and 
fifty  in  Dodge's  squadron. 

On  the  eighteenth,  the  troopers  reached 
Rock  River  and  found  the  Winnebago  village 
at  which  Black  Hawk  and  his  band  had  been 
quartered,  but  the  enemy  had  fled.     The  Win- 


1 74       Essays  in  Western  History 

nebagoes  insisted  that  their  late  visitors  were 
now  at  Cranberry  Lake,^  a  half  day's  march 
up  the  River,  and  the  white  commanders  re- 
solved to  proceed  thither  the  following  day. 
They  had  arrived  at  the  village  at  noon,  and 
at  two  in  the  afternoon  Adjutants  Merriam  of 
Henry's,  and  Woodbridge  of  Dodge's,  bearing 
information  of  the  supposed  discovery,  started 
south  to  Atkinson's  camp,  thirty-five  miles 
down  the  river.  Little  Thunder,  a  Winnebago 
chief,  accompanied  them  as  guide.  When 
nearly  twenty  miles  out,  and  halfway  between 
A  hot  the  present  sites  of  Watertown  and 

trail  Jefferson,   the    messengers   suddenly 

struck  a  broad,  fresh  trail  trending  to  the  west. 
Little  Thunder  became  greatly  excited,  and 
shouted  and  gestured  vehemently,  but  the 
adjutants  were  unable  to  understand  a  word 
of  the  Winnebago  tongue.  When  the  chief 
suddenly  turned  his  pony  and  dashed  back  to 
Henry's  camp,  they  were  obliged  to  hasten 
after  him,  as  further  progress  through  the 
tangled  thickets  and  wide  morasses  without  a 
pilot  was  inadvisable.  Little  Thunder  had,  it 
seemed,  returned  to  inform  his  people  that  the 
trail  of  Black  Hawk  in  his  flight  to  the  Missis- 

1  Afterwards   Horicon   Lake,  in   Dodge  County  — now 
drained. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  175 

sippi  had  been  discovered,  and  to  warn  them 
that  further  dissembhng  was  useless.^ 

In  the  camp  of  the  volunteers,  this  news  was 
received  with  great  joy.  Their  sinking  spirits 
at  once  revived,  and  the  following  morning 
pursuit  on  the  fresh  scent  was  undertaken  with 
an  enthusiasm  that  henceforth  had  no  occasion 
The  to    lag.     All  possible    encumbrances 

pursuit  were  left  behind,  so  that  progress 
should  be  unimpeded.  The  course  lay  slightly 
to  the  north  of  west,  through  the  present  towns 
of  Lake  Mills  and  Cottage  Grove.  The  Chicago 
&  Northwestern  Railway  between  Jefferson 
Junction  and  Madison  follows  quite  closely 
Black  Hawk's  trail  from  the  Rock  River  to  the 
Four  Lakes.  Deep  swamps  and  sink-holes 
were  met  by  the  army,  nearly  the  entire  dis- 
tance. The  men  had  frequently  to  dismount 
and  wade  in  water  and  mud  to  their  armpits, 
while  the  first  night  out  a  violent  thunder- 
storm with  phenomenal  rainfall,  followed  by  an 
unseasonable  drop  in  the  temperature,  in- 
creased the  natural  difficulties  of  the  march. 
But  the  fickle  Winnebago  stragglers,  who  in 
this  time  of  want  and  peril  were  deserting  the 
band  of  Sauk  fugitives,  and  fawning  upon  their 
white   pursuers,  reported  the    Hawk  but  two 

1   Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  ii.,  p.  407. 


176       Essays  in  Western  History 

miles  in  advance,  and  the  volunteers  eagerly 
hurried  on  with  empty  stomachs  and  wet  clothes. 
By  sunset  of  the  second  day  (July  20)  they 
reached  the  lakes,  going  into  camp  for  the 
night  a  quarter  of  a  mile  north  of  the  north- 
east extremity  of  Lake  Monona  (Third  Lake).^ 
That  same   night,  Black    Hawk  was   strongly 

1  Wakefield,  who  was  with  the  army,  gives  this  interesting 
picture  (p.  66)  of  the  now  famous  Four-lake  country,  as  it 
appeared  to  him,  July  20,  1832:  "  Here  it  may  not  be  unin- 
teresting to  the  reader  to  give  a  small  outline  of  those  lakes. 
From  a  description  of  the  country,  a  person  would  very  natu- 
rally suppose  that  those  lakes  were  as  little  pleasing  to  the 
eye  of  the  traveller  as  the  country  is.  But  not  so.  I  think 
they  are  the  most  beautiful  bodies  of  water  I  ever  saw.  The 
first  one  that  we  came  to  [Monona]  was  about  ten  miles  in 
circumference,  and  the  water  as  clear  as  chrystal.  The  earth 
sloped  back  in  a  gradual  rise;  the  bottom  of  the  lake  ap- 
peared to  be  entirely  covered  with  white  pebbles,  and  no 
appearance  of  its  being  the  least  bit  swampy.  The  second 
one  that  we  came  to  [Mendota]  appeared  to  be  much  larger. 
It  must  have  been  twenty  miles  in  circumference.  The 
ground  rose  very  high  all  around  ;  —  and  the  heaviest  kind  of 
timber  grew  close  to  the  water's  edge.  If  those  lakes  were 
anywhere  else,  except  in  the  country  they  are,  they  would 
be  considered  among  the  wonders  of  the  world.  But  the 
country  they  are  situated  in  is  not  fit  for  any  civilized  nation 
of  people  to  inhabit.  It  appears  that  the  Almighty  intended 
it  for  the  children  of  the  forest.  The  other  two  lakes 
[Kegonsa  (First)  and  Waubesa  (Second)]  we  did  not  get 
close  enough  for  me  to  give  a  complete  description  of  them ; 
but  those  who  saw  them,  stated  that  they  were  very  much 
like  the  others." 


I 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 77 

ambushed,  seven  or  eight  miles  beyond,  near 
the  present  village  of  Pheasant  Branch,  at  the 
western  extremity  of  Lake  Mendota. 

At  daybreak  of  the  twenty-first,  the  troops 
were  awakened,  and,  after  fording  Catfish  River 
where  the  Williamson  Street  bridge  now  crosses 
At  it,  swept  in  regular  line  of  battle  across 

Madison  ^^  isthmus  between  Monona  and  Men- 
dota lakes,  Ewing's  spies  to  the  front.  Where 
to-day  is  built  the  park-like  city  of  Madison, 
the  capital  of  Wisconsin,  was  then  a  heavy 
forest  with  frequent  dense  thickets  of  under- 
brush. The  line  of  march  was  along  the 
shore  of  Monona  to  about  the  present  site  of 
the  Fauerbach  brewery,  thence  almost  due 
west  to  Mendota,  the  hilly  shores  of  which 
were  closely  skirted  through  the  present  campus 
of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  across  inter- 
vening swamps  and  hills  to  Pheasant  Branch, 
and  thence  due  northwest  to  Wisconsin  River, 
which  here  sweeps  in  majestic  curves  between 
corrugated,  grass-grown  bluffs,  some  two  or 
three  hundred  feet  in  height.  The  advance 
was  so  rapid  that,  during  the  day,  forty 
horses  succumbed  between  the  Catfish  and  the 
Wisconsin.  When  his  animal  gave  out,  the 
trooper  would  trudge  on  afoot,  throwing  away 
his  camp-kettle  and  other  encumbrances,  thus 
12 


I  ^^       Essays  in  Western  History 

following  the  example  of  the  fugitives,  whose 
trail  was  strewn  with  Indian  mats,  kettles,  and 
miscellaneous  equipage  discarded  in  the  hurry 
of  flight.  Some  half-dozen  inoffensive  Sauk 
stragglers,  chiefly  old  men  who  had  become 
exhausted  by  the  famine  now  prevailing  in 
the  Hawk's  camp,^  were  at  intervals  shot  and 
scalped  by  the  whites  —  two  of  them  within 
the  present  limits  of  Madison. 

It  was  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  before 
the  enemy's  rear  guard  of  twenty  braves  under 
Neapope  was  overtaken.  Several  running  skir- 
mishes ensued.  The  timber  was  still  thick,  and 
it  was  impossible  at  first  to  know  whether  or 
not  Neapope's  party  were  the  main  body  of 
the  fugitives.  The  weakness  of  the  tribesmen 
after  a  time  became  apparent,  and  thereafter 
when  they  made  a  feint  the  spies  would  charge 
and  easily  disperse  them. 

At  about  half-past  four  o'clock,  when  within 

1  "  During  our  encampment  at  Four  Lakes,  we  were  hard 
put,  to  obtain  enough  to  eat  to  support  nature.  Stuck  in  a 
swampy,  marshy  country  (which  had  been  selected  in  conse- 
quence of  the  great  difficulty  required  to  gain  access  thereto), 
there  was  but  little  game  of  any  sort  to  be  found  —  and  fish 
were  equally  scarce.  .  .  .  We  were  forced  to  dig  roots  and 
bark  trees,  to  obtain  something  to  satisfy  our  hunger  and 
keep  us  alive.  Several  of  our  old  people  became  so  much 
reduced,  as  actually  to  die  with  hunger."  —  Autobiography, 
p.  130. 


1 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 79 

a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  river,  and  some  twenty- 
five  miles  northwest  of  the  site  of  Madison, 
Battle  of  Neapope's  band,  reinforced  by  a  score 
Wisconsin  of  braves  under  Black  Hawk,  made 
^"^^'^'  a  bold  stand  to  cover  the  flight  of 
the  main  body  of  his  people  down  the  bluffs 
and  across  the  broad  island-studded  stream. 
Every  fourth  man  of  the  white  column  was  de- 
tailed to  hold  the  horses,  while  the  rest  of  the 
troopers  advanced  on  foot.  The  savages,  yell- 
ing hke  madmen,  made  a  heavy  charge,  and 
endeavored  to  flank  the  whites,  but  Colonel 
Frye  on  the  right  and  Colonel  Jones  on  the 
left  repulsed  them  with  loss.  The  Sauks  now 
dropped  into  the  grass,  here  nearly  six  feet 
high;  but  after  a  half-hour  of  hot  firing  on 
both  sides,  with  a  few  casualties  evenly  distrib- 
uted. Dodge,  Ev/ing,  and  Jones  charged  the 
enemy  with  the  bayonet,  driving  them  up  a 
rising  piece  of  ground  at  the  top  of  which 
a  second  rank  was  found,  skilfuU}^  covering 
the  retreat.  After  further  firing,  the  Indians 
swiftly  descended  through  the  rank  herbage  of 
the  bluffs  to  join  their  main  body,  now  engaged 
in  crossing  the  river.  It  had  been  raining 
softly  during  the  greater  part  of  the  battle,  and 
difficulty  was  experienced  in  keeping  the  mus- 
kets dry;    nevertheless  a  sharp  fire  was  kept 


i8o       Essays  in  Western  History 

up  between  the  lines  until  dusk.  At  the  base 
of  the  bluffs  there  was  swampy  ground  some 
sixty  yards  in  width,  thick  strewn  with  willows, 
and  then  a  heavy  fringe  of  timber  on  a  strip  of 
firm  ground  along  the  river-bank.  As  the 
Indians  could  reach  this  vantage-point  before 
being  overtaken,  it  was  deemed  best  to  aban- 
don the  pursuit  for  the  night. 

Black  Hawk,  skilful  in  military  operations, 
personally  conducted  the  battle,  on  the  part  of 
the  Sauks,  and  from  a  neighboring  knoll,  where 
he  was  seated  on  a  white  pony,  directed  and 
encouraged  his  men  with  clear,  loud  voice.^ 

After  dusk  had  set  in,  a  considerable  party 
of  the  fugitives,  composed  mainly  of  women, 
children,  and  old  men,  were  placed  on  a  large 
raft  and  in  canoes  begged  from  the  Winneba- 
goes,  and  sent  down  the  river  in  the  hope  that 
the  soldiers  at  Fort  Crawford,  guarding  the 
mouth  of  the  Wisconsin,  would  allow  these 
non-combatants  to  cross  the  Mississippi  in 
peace.  But  too  much  reliance  was  placed  on 
the  humanity  of  the  Americans.     Lieutenant 

1  Black  Hawk  says  that  he  lost  six  warriors  in  this  en- 
gagement at  Wisconsin  Heights  (opposite  Prairie  du  Sac). 
Mrs.  Kinzie's  Wau  Bun  (New  York,  1856)  says,  it  was  re- 
ported at  Fort  Winnebago  that  fifty  Sauks  were  killed. 
Wakefield  puts  the  number  at  sixty-eight  killed  outright, 
and  twenty-five  mortally  wounded. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  i8i 

Joseph  Ritner,  with  a  small  detachment  of 
regulars,  was  sent  out  by  Indian  Agent  Joseph 
M.  Street^  to  intercept  these  forlorn,  half- 
starved  wretches,  a  messenger  from  the  field 
of  battle  having  apprised  the  agent  of  their 
approach.  A  short  distance  above  Fort  Craw- 
ford, Ritner  fired  on  them,  killing  fifteen  men 
and  capturing  thirty-two  women  and  children, 
and  four  men.  Nearly  as  many  more  were 
drowned  during  the  onslaught ;  while  of  the 
rest,  who  escaped  to  the  wooded  shores,  all 
but  a  half-score  perished  with  hunger  or  were 
massacred  by  a  belated  party  of  three  hundred 
Menominee  allies  from  the  Green  Bay  district, 
under  Colonel  Stambaugh  and  a  small  staff  of 
white  officers.^ 

During  the  night  after  the  battle  of  Wiscon- 
sin Heights  —  as  that  affair  has  since  been 
Anunsuc-  ^uown  in  history  —  there  were  fre- 
cessfui  quent  alarms  from  prowling  Indians, 
^^^^'^  and  the  men,  fearing  an  attack,  were 

nearly  always  under  arms.  About  an  hour 
and  a  half  before  dawn  of  the  twenty-second, 
a  loud,  shrill  voice,  speaking  in  an  unknown 
tongue,  was  heard  from  the  direction  of  the 

^  Stationed  at  Prairie  du  Chien. 

2  See  "  Boyd  Papers,"  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  xiL,  for  the  docu- 
mentary history  of  Stambaugh's  expedition. 


1 82       Essays  in  Western  History 

eminence  known  to  have  been  occupied  by- 
Black  Hawk  during  the  previous  afternoon. 
There  was  at  once  a  panic  in  the  camp,  for  it 
was  thought  that  the  savage  leader  was  giving 
orders  for  an  attack,  and  Henry  thought  it  de- 
sirable to  bolster  the  courage  of  his  men  by 
making  them  a  patriotic  speech,  during  which 
the  interrupted  harangue  of  the  savage  ceased. 
It  was  afterwards  learned  that  the  orator 
was  Neapope,  who  had  spoken  in  the  Win- 
nebago tongue,  under  the  presumption  that 
Paquette  and  the  Winnebago  pilots  were  still 
in  camp.  But  during  the  night  they  had  left 
for  Fort  Winnebago,  and  it  chanced  that  no 
one  among  the  troops  had  understood  a  word 
of  the  speech  —  an  offer  of  conciliation,  ad- 
dressed to  the  victors.  Neapope  had  said  that 
with  the  Sauks  were  their  squaws,  children,  and 
old  people ;  they  had  unwillingly  been  forced 
into  war,  they  were  literally  starving,  and  if 
allowed  to  cross  the  Mississippi  in  peace  would 
nevermore  do  harm.  But  the  plea  fell  on  un- 
witting ears,  and  thus  failed  the  second  earnest 
attempt  of  the  British  Band  to  close  the  war. 
As  for  Neapope,  finding  that  his  mission  had 
failed,  —  apparently  through  the  hardness  of 
the  American  heart,  —  he  fled  to  the  Winne- 
bagoes,  leaving  his  half-dozen  companions  to 


The  Black  Hawk  War  183 

return  with  the  discouraging  news  to  Black 
Hawk,  now  secretly  encamped  with  the  rem- 
nant of  his  band  in  a  neighboring  ravine  north 
of  the  Wisconsin.^ 

The  twenty-second  of  July  was  spent  by  the 
white  army  on  the  battlefield,  making  prepara- 
tions to  march  to  the  rude  local  fort  at  Blue 
Mounds  for  supplies.  It  was  now  known  that 
during  the  night  the  enemy  had  escaped  across 
or  down  the  river;  and  the  troops  were  in- 
sufficiently provisioned  for  a  long  chase 
through  the  unknown  country  beyond  Wis- 
consin River. 

On  the  twenty-third,  Henry  marched  with 
his  corps  to  Blue  Mounds,  and  late  that  even- 
Preparing  i^g  was  joined  by  Atkinson  and 
for  the        Alexander,  who,  on  being  informed 

pursuit  ....  -     - 

by  express  of  the  discovery  of  the 
trail  and  the  rapid  chase,  had  left  the  fort  on 
the  Koshkonong  and  hastened  on  to  the 
Mounds  to  join  the  victors.  Atkinson  assumed 
command,  distributed  rations  to  the  men,  and 
ordered  that  the  pursuit  be  resumed. 

On  the  twenty-seventh  and  twenty-eighth, 
the  Wisconsin  was  crossed  on  rafts  at  Helena, 

1  Autobiography,  pp.  131-133.  Black  Hawk  does  not  men- 
tion this  incident  of  Neapope's  night  harangue.  Reynolds 
reports  it,  p.  262;  so  also  Ford,  p.  146,  and  Wakefield,  p.  86. 


184       Essays  in  Western  History 

then  a  deserted  log  village,  whose  cabins  had 
furnished  material  for  the  floats.^  Posey  here 
joined  the  army  with  his  brigade,  and  thus  all 
of  the  generals  were  now  reunited.  The  march 
was  commenced  at  noon  of  the  twenty-eighth, 
the  four  hundred  and  fifty  regulars,  now  under 
General  Brady,  —  with  Colonel  Taylor  still  of 
the  party,  —  in  advance ;  while  Dodge,  Posey, 
and  Alexander  followed  in  the  order  named, 
Henry  bringing  up  the  rear  in  charge  of  the 
baggage.  It  appears  that  much  jealousy  had 
been  displayed  by  Atkinson,  at  the  fact  that 
the  laurels  of  the  campaign,  such  as  they  were, 
had  thus  far  been  won  by  the  volunteers. 
Henry,  as  chief  of  the  victors  at  Wisconsin 
Heights,  was  especially  unpopular  at  head- 
quarters. But  the  brigadier  and  his  men 
trudged  peacefully  on  behind,  judiciously 
pocketing  what  they  felt  to  be  an  affront.^ 

1  See  Wis.  Hist.  Colls. ,-x.\.,  p.  403  ;  and  Libby's  "Chronicle 
of  the  Helena  Shot  Tower,"  ibid.f  xiii.,  pp  335-374.  The 
town,  built  for  the  accommodation  of  the  employees  of  a 
shot-making  company,  had  been  deserted  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  war,  most  of  the  men  being  now  members  of  Dodge's 
rangers. 

2  Ford,  pp.  146-155,  publishes  some  interesting  corre- 
spondence, showing  that  Dodge  was  disposed  to  claim  more 
than  his  share  of  the  honors  of  this  and  some  other  engage- 
ments in  the  war,  and  to  ignore  Henry  as  his  superior  officer. 
Those  men  under  Dodge,  who  have  written  about  the  cam- 


The  Black  Hawk  War  185 

After  marching  four  or  five  miles  northeast- 
ward, the  trail  of  the  fugitives  was  discovered 
A  forbid-  trending  to  the  north  of  west,  towards 
ding  path  the  Mississippi.  The  country  between 
the  Wisconsin  and  the  great  river  is  rugged 
and  forbidding  in  character;  it  was  then  un- 
known to  whites,  and  almost  equally  unfamiliar 
to  the  Winnebago  guides.  The  impediments 
were  many  and  serious,  swamps  and  turbulent 
rivers  being  freely  interspersed  between  steep, 
thickly  wooded  hills.  However,  the  fact  that 
they  were  noticeably  gaining  on  the  enemy 
constantly  spurred  the  troopers  to  great  en- 
deavors. The  pathway  was  strewn  with  the 
bodies  of  dead  Sauks,  who  had  died  of  wounds 
and  starvation,  and  there  were  frequent  evi- 
dences that  to  sustain  life  the  fleeing  wretches 
were  eating  the  bark  of  trees  and  the  sparse 
flesh  of  their  fagged-out  ponies.^ 

paign,  extol  the  superior  merits  of  their  chief ;  but  in  Illinois 
pioneer  reminiscences,  Henry  is  invariably  the  hero  of  the 
occasion. 

1  "  I  started  over  a  rugged  country,  to  go  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, intending  to  cross  it,  and  return  to  my  nation. 
Many  of  our  people  were  compelled  to  go  on  foot,  for  want 
of  horses,  which,  in  consequence  of  their  having  had  nothing 
to  eat  for  a  long  time,'caused  our  march  to  be  very  slow.  At 
length  we  reached  the  Mississippi,  having  lost  some' of  our 
old  men  and  little  children,  who  perished  on  the  way  with 
hunger."  —  Autobiography ^  p.  133. 


1 86       Essays  m  Western  History 

On  Wednesday,  the  first  of  August,  Black 
Hawk  and  his  now  sadly  depleted  and  almost 
The  famished   band   reached   the   Missis- 

Mississippi,  sippi  at  a  point  two  miles  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Bad  Axe,  a  small  east- 
ern tributary,  and  about  forty  north  of  the 
Wisconsin.  In  these  upper  reaches  the  broad 
river  is  diverted  into  several  channels  by  long, 
narrow  islands  heavily  wooded  by  swamp  oaks 
and  willows,  and  thick  strewn  with  giant  wind- 
rows of  drift,  lodged  by  spring  freshets.  Here 
Black  Hawk  undertook  to  cross;  there  were, 
however,  but  two  or  three  canoes  to  be  had, 
and  the  work  was  slow.  One  large  raft,  laden 
with  women  and  children,  was  despatched  to 
thread  its  way  under  cover  of  the  islands  along 
the  east  side  of  the  river,  towards  Prairie  du 
Chien ;  but  on  the  way  it  capsized,  probably 
impelled  upon  one  of  the  sprawling  snags 
which  ofttimes  rendered  early  river  navigation 
a  perilous  undertaking,  and  nearly  all  of  its 
occupants  were  drowned. 

In  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  the  steamer 
"  Warrior,"  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  used  to  trans- 
port army  supplies,  appeared  on  the  scene 
with   John   Throckmorton    as    captain.^      On 

1  See  Fonda's  report  of  the  "  Warrior's  "  part  in  the  battle, 
Wis.  Hist.  Colls. ^  v.,  pp.  261-264. 


I 


J 


The  Black  Hawk  War  187 

board  were  Lieutenants  Gaines  P.  Kingsbury 
and  Reuben  Holmes,  with  fifteen  regulars  and 
six  volunteers.  The  party  had  been  up  the 
river  to  notify  the  friendly  Sioux  chief  Wa- 
basha, —  whose  village  was  on  the  site  of 
Winona,  Minnesota,  —  that  the  Sauks  were 
headed  in  that  direction.  As  the  steamer 
The  Battle  neared  the  shore,  Black  Hawk  ap- 
ofthe  Bad  peared  on  the  bank  with  a  white  flag, 
and  in  the  Winnebago  tongue  called 
to  the  captain  to  send  a  boat  ashore,  as  the 
fugitives  wished  to  give  themselves  up.  A 
Winnebago  stationed  in  the  bow  interpreted 
the  request,  but  the  captain  affected  to  believe 
that  an  ambush  was  intended,  and  ordered  the 
Hawk  to  come  aboard  in  his  own  craft.  This 
the  Sauk  could  not  do,  for  the  only  canoes 
at  his  command  were  engaged  in  transporting 
his  women  and  children  across  the  river,  and 
were  not  now  within  hail.  His  reply  to  this 
effect  was  quickly  met  by  three  successive 
rounds  of  canister-shot,  which  ploughed  with 
deadly  effect  through  the  little  group  of  Indians 
on  shore.  There  followed  a  fierce  fire  of 
musketry  on  both  sides,  in  which  twenty- 
three  Indians  were  killed,  while  the  whites 
suffered  the  loss  of  but  one  wounded.  The 
"Warrior,"  now  being  short  of  fuel,  towards 


1 88       Essays  in  Western  History 

night  returned  to  Prairie  du  Chien  to  "  wood 
up,"  the  soldiers  much  elated  at  their  share  in 
the  campaign. 

During  the  night  a  few  more  savages  crossed 
the  river  into  Minnesota;  but  Black  Hawk, 
foreseeing  that  disaster  was  about  to  befall 
his  people,  gathered  a  party  of  ten  warriors, 
among  whom  was  the  Prophet,  and  these,  with 
about  thirty-five  squaws  and  children,  headed 
east  for  a  rocky  hiding-place  at  the  Dalles  of  the 
Wisconsin,  whither  some  Winnebagoes  offered 
to  guide  them.^  The  next  day  the  heart  of 
the  old  man  smote  him  for  having  left  his 
people  to  their  fate,  and  he  returned  in  time 
to  witness  from  a  neighboring  bluff  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Battle  of  the  Bad  Axe,  that 
struck  the  death-blow  to  the  British  Band. 
With  a  howl  of  rage,  he  turned  back  into  the 
forest  and  fled. 

The  aged  warrior  had  left  excellent  instruc- 
tions to  his  braves,  in  the  event  of  the  arrival 
of  the  white  army  by  land.  Twenty  picked 
Sauks  were  ordered  to  stand  rear  guard  on  one 
of  the  high,  ravine-washed  bluffs  which  here 
line  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi ;  and 
when  engaged,  to  fall  back  three  miles  up  the 
river,  thus   to   deceive   the  whites  as   to  the 

1  Wakefield,  pp.  97,  98. 


The  Black  Hawk  War  189 

location  of  the  main  band,  and  gain  time  for 
the  flight  of  the  latter  across  the  stream,  which 
was  progressing  slowly  with  but  two  canoes 
now  left  for  the  purpose. 

Atkinson's  men  were  on  the  move  by  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  second.  When 
within  four  or  five  miles  of  the  Sauk  position, 
the  decoys  were  encountered.  The  density 
of  the  bottom  timber  obstructing  the  view,  and 
the  twenty  braves  being  widely  separated,  it 
was  supposed  that  the  main  force  of  the  enemy 
had  been  overtaken.  The  army  accordingly 
spread  itself  for  the  attack,  Alexander  and 
Posey  forming  the  right  wing,  Henry  the  left, 
and  Dodge  and  the  regulars  the  centre.  When, 
as  directed  by  their  chief,  the  braves  retreated 
up  the  river,  the  white  centre  and  right  wing 
followed  quickly,  leaving  the  left  wing  —  with 
the  exception  of  one  of  its  regiments  detailed 
to  cover  the  rear  —  without  orders.  This  was 
clearly  an  additional  affront  to  Henry,  Atkin- 
son's design  being  doubtless  to  crowd  him  out 
of  what  all  anticipated  would  be  the  closing 
engagement  of  the  campaign,  and  what  little 
glory  might  come  of  it. 

But  the  fates  did  not  desert  the  brigadier. 
Some  of  Ewing's  spies,  attached  to  his  com- 
mand, accidentally  discovered  that   the  main 


190       Essays  in  Western  History 

trail  of  the  fugitive  band  was  lower  down  the 
river-bank  than  whither  the  decoys  were  lead- 
ing the  army.  Henry,  with  his  entire  force, 
thereupon  descended  a  bluff  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood,  and  after  a  dash  on  foot  through 
the  open  wooded  plateau  between  the  base  of 
the  bluff  and  the  shore,  found  himself  in  the 
midst  of  the  main  body  of  three  hundred  war- 
riors, which  was  about  the  number  of  the  at- 
tacking party.  A  desperate  conflict  ensued, 
the  bucks  being  driven  from  tree  to  tree  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet,  while  women  and  chil- 
dren plunged  madly  into  the  river,  many  of 
them  being  immediately  drowned.  The  air 
quivered  with  savage  yells  and  whoops,  with 
the  hoarse  cry  of  the  troopers  as  they  cheered 
one  another  on,  and  with  the  shrill  notes  of  the 
bugle  directing  the  details  of  the  attack. 

A  full  half-hour  after  Henry  had  made  his 
descent  upon  the  Sauk  centre,  Atkinson,  hear- 
ing the  din  of  battle  in  his  rear,  came  hasten- 
ing to  the  scene  with  the  centre  and  right  wing, 
driving  in  the  decoys  and  stragglers  before 
him,  thus  completing  the  corral.  The  carnage 
now  proceeded  more  fiercely  than  ever.  The 
red  men  fought  with  intense  desperation,  and, 
though  weak  from  hunger,  died  like  braves. 
A  few  escaped  through  a  broad  slough  to  a 


The  Black  Hawk  War  191 

willow  island,  which  the  steamer  "Warrior," 
now  reappearing  on  the  river,  raked  from  end 
to  end  with  canister.  This  was  followed  by 
a  wild  charge  through  mud  and  water  by  a 
detachment  of  regulars,  with  a  few  of  Henry's 
and  Dodge's  volunteers,  who  ended  the  affair 
by  sweeping  the  island  with  a  bayonet  charge. 
Some  of  the  fugitives  succeeded  in  swimming  to 
the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  but  many  were 
drowned  on  the  way,  or  coolly  picked  off  by 
sharpshooters,  who  exercised  no  more  mercy 
towards  squaws  and  children  than  towards 
braves  —  treating  them  all  as  though  rats 
rather  than  human  beings.^ 

The  Battle  of  the  Bad  Axe  —  massacre 
would  be  a  better  term  —  lasted  for  three  long, 
horrible  hours.  Few  if  any  contests  between 
red  men  and  white  men  have  been  less  credit- 
able to  our  race.     In  the  course  of  the  carnage, 

1  "  Although  the  warriors  fought  with  the  courage  and 
valor  of  desperation,  yet  the  conflict  resembled  more  a  car- 
nage than  a  regular  battle."  —  Reynolds,  p.  265. 

"  Our  braves,  but  few  in  number,  finding  that  the  enemy 
paid  no  regard  to  age  or  sex,  and  seeing  that  they  were  mur- 
dering helpless  women  and  little  children,  determined  to 
fight  imtil  they  were  killed."  —  Autobiography,  p.  135. 

Wakefield  says,  p.  85,  "  It  was  a  horrid  sight  to  witness 
little  children,  wounded  and  suffering  the  most  excruciating 
pain.  ...  It  was  enough  to  make  the  heart  of  the  most 
hardened  being  on  earth  to  ache." 


192       Essays  in  Western  History 

a  hundred  and  fifty  Indians  were  slaughtered 
outright,  while  as  many  more  of  both  sexes 
and  all  ages  and  conditions  were  drowned  — 
some  fifty  only  being  taken  prisoners,  and 
they  mostly  women  and  children.  About 
three  hundred  of  the  band  successfully  crossed 
the  river,  before  and  during  the  struggle.  The 
whites  lost  but  seventeen  killed  and  twelve 
wounded.^ 

Those  few  of  the  Sauks  who  safely  regained 
the  west  bank  were  soon  set  upon  by  a  party 
^  ^.^_  of  a  hundred  Sioux,  under  Wabasha, 
honorable     Sent  out  for  that  purpose  by  Atkin- 

chapter  ^^^  .     ^^^     ^    y^^^    ^^    thcSC    hclplcSS, 

nearly  starved  non-combatants  were  cruelly 
slaughtered,  while  many  others  died  of  exhaus- 
tion and  wounds  before  they  reached  those  of 
their  friends  who  had  been  wise  enough  to 
abide  by  Keokuk's  peaceful  admonitions  and 
stay  at  home.  Thus,  out  of  the  band  of  nearly 
a  thousand  persons  who  crossed  the  Missis- 
sippi at  the  Yellow  Banks  in  April,  not  more, 
all  told,  than  a  hundred  and  fifty,  lived  to  tell 
the  tragic  story  of  the  Black  Hawk  War  —  a 

1  I  follow  Reynolds,  p.  265.  He  says  apologetically, 
years  after  the  event,  "  Some  squaws  were  killed  by  mistake 
in  the  battle.  They  were  mixed  with  the  warriors,  and  some 
of  them  dressed  like  the  males." 


The  Black  Hawk  War  193 

dishonorable   chapter    in  the   history   of  the 
border. 

The  rest  can  soon  be  told.  On  the  seventh 
of  August,  when  the  victors  had  returned  to 
Prairie  du  Chien,  General  Winfield 
Scott  arrived  and  assumed  command, 
discharging  the  volunteers  the  following  day. 
Cholera  among  his  troops  had  detained  him 
first  at  Detroit,  then  at  Chicago,  and  lastly  at 
Rock  Island,  nearly  a  fourth  of  his  detachment 
of  a  thousand  regulars  having  died  of  the  pes- 
tilence. Independent  of  this,  the  American  loss 
in  the  war,  including  volunteers  and  settlers 
killed  in  the  irregular  skirmishes  and  in  massa- 
cres, was  not  over  two  hundred  and  fifty.  The 
financial  cost  to  the  nation  and  to  the  State  of 
Illinois  aggregated  nearly  two  millions  of  dollars. 
On  the  twenty-seventh  of  August,  Chaetar 
and  One-eyed  Decorah,  two  Winnebago  braves 
Black  ^'^°  v^^x^  desirous  of  displaying  their 
Hawk  a  newly-inspired  loyalty  to  the  Amer- 
prisoner  j^^^^^^  delivered  Black  Hawk  and  the 
Prophet  into  the  hands  of  Agent  Street,  at 
Prairie  du  Chien.  They  had  found  the  con- 
spirators at  the  Dalles  of  Wisconsin  River, 
above  the  site  of  Kilbourn  City.^ 

1  See  McBride's"  Capture  of  Black  Hawk,"  in  Wis.  Hist. 
Colls.,  v.,  pp.  293,  294;  id.,  viii.,  p.  316,  note;  Wakefield,  pp. 
13 


194       Essays  in  Western  History 

On  the  twenty-first  of  September,  a  treaty 
of  peace  was  signed  at  Fort  Armstrong ;  under 
its  terms,  Black  Hawk,  the  Prophet,  and  Nea- 
pope  —  who  had  been  captured  later  —  were, 
with  others,  kept  as  hostages  for  the  good  be- 
haviour of  the  small  remnant  of  the  British 
Band  and  their  Winnebago  allies.^  They  were 
kept  through  the  winter  at  Jefferson  Barracks 
(St.  Louis),2  and  in  April,  1823,  taken  to 
Washington ;  thence  being  sent  as  prisoners 
of  war  to  Fortress  Monroe,  where  they  were 
discharged  on  the  fourth  of  June.  After  visit- 
ing the  principal  cities  of  the  East,  in  which 
Black  Hawk  was  much  Honized,  and  came  for 
the  first  time  to  appreciate  the  power  and  re- 

95-101.  There  have  been  many  traditions  of  the  capture, 
differing  from  the  above,  but  there  is  no  documentary  evi- 
dence to  substantiate  them.  The  account  here  followed  is 
based  upon  Street's  official  report.  Decorah  received  from 
Atkinson,  at  Dixon,  twenty  horses  as  his  reward  for  the 
delivery.  The  originals  of  much  of  Street's  correspondence 
as  Indian  Agent  are  in  the  Iowa  and  Wisconsin  historical 
archives. 

1  Treaties,  p.  50S. 

2  Lieutenant  Jefferson  Davis  took  charge  of  the  transfer 
of  the  prisoners  from  Fort  Armstrong  to  Jefferson  Barracks. 
The  Davis  biography  previously  cited,  says,  "  He  entirely 
won  the  heart  of  the  savage  chieftain,  and  before  they 
reached  Jefferson  Barracks  there  had  sprung  up  between  the 
stern  red  warrior  and  the  young  pale  face  a  warm  friendship 
which  only  terminated  with  the  life  of  Black  Hawk." 


The  Black  Hawk  War  195 

sources  of  the  whites,  the  party  returned  to  Fort 
Armstrong,  where  they  arrived  about  the  first 
of  August.  Here  the  pride  of  the  Sauk  leader 
was  completely  crushed,  he  being  formally 
transferred  by  the  military  authorities  to  the 
guardianship  of  his  hated  rival,  Keokuk.  This 
ceremony  the  fallen  Black  Hawk  regarded  as  an 
irreparable  insult,  which  he  nursed  with  much 
bitterness  through  the  remainder  of  his  days. 
The  broken-hearted  warrior,  with  the  weight 
of  seventy-one  years  upon  his  whitened  head, 
Death  of  passcd  away  on  the  third  of  October, 
the  Hawk  1838,  at  his  home  on  a  small  reserva- 
tion which  had  been  set  apart  for  him  and  his 
few  remaining  followers,  on  the  Des  Moines 
River,  in  Davis  County,  lowa.^  In  July  of  the 
following  year,  an  Illinois  physician  rifled  his 
grave.  Complaint  being  made  by  Black  Hawk's 
family.  Governor  Lucas  of  Iowa,  in  the  spring 
of  1840,  caused  the  skeleton  to  be  delivered  to 
him  at  Burlington,  then  the  capital  of  that 
Territory.  Later  in  the  year  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment being  moved  to   Iowa  City,  the  box 

1  Cornelius  Buckley  writes,  in  the  Beloit  Weekly  Free 
Press,  October  15,  1891 :  "He  was  buried  in  the  northeast 
corner  of  Davis  County,  on  section  2,  township  70,  range  12, 
ninety  rods  from  where  he  died,  and  near  the  present  village 
of  Eldon." 


196       Essays  in  Western  History 

containing  the  remains  was  deposited  in  a  law 
office  in  that  town,  where  it  remained  until  the 
night  of  January  16,  1853,  when  the  building 
was  destroyed  by  fire.^ 

Black  Hawk  was  an  indiscreet  man.  His 
troubles  were,  in  the  main,  the  result  of  lack 
His  of  mental  balance,  aided  largely  by 

character  untoward  circumstanccs.  He  was  of 
a  highly  romantic  temperament;  his  judgment 
was  warped  by  sentiment ;  and  tricksters  easily 
played  upon  this  weakness.  But  he  was  honest, 
—  more  honorable,  often,  than  those  who  were 
his  conquerors.  He  was,  above  all  things,  a 
patriot.  In  the  year  before  his  death,  he  made 
a  speech  to  a  party  of  whites  who  were  making 
a  holiday  hero  of  him,  and  thus  forcibly  de- 
fended his  motives :  "  Rock  River  was  a  beau- 
tiful country.  I  liked  my  town,  my  cornfields, 
and  the  home  of  my  people.  I  fought  for 
them."  No  poet  could  have  penned  for  him  a 
more  touching  epitaph. 

Forbearance,  honorable  dealing,  and  the  ex- 
ercise of  sound  policy  upon  the  part  of  the 
whites  might  easily  have  prevented  the  war, 

1  It  had  been  designed  to  place  the  warrior's  bones  in  the 
museum  of  the  Iowa  Historical  and  Geological  Institute,  but 
the  fire  occurred  before  the  removal  could  take  place.  —  Bur- 
lington (Iowa)  Gazette,  August  25,  1888. 


llie  Black  Hawk  War  197 

with  its  pitiful  expenditure  of  blood  and 
treasure.  Squatters  had  been  allowed  with 
impunity  to  violate  the  spirit  of  treaty  obli- 
gations, in  harassing  the  Sauks  in  their  ancient 
village  long  before  the  government  had  sold 
the  land ;  for  six  thousand  dollars — a  beggarly 
price  for  securing  peace  with  a  formidable 
band  of  starving  savages,  grown  desperate 
from  ill  usage  —  Black  Hawk  would,  in  183 1, 
have  removed  his  people  to  the  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  without  any  show  of  force ;  ^  at 
Sycamore  Creek,  an  observance  of  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  universally-established  rules  of 
war  would  have  procured  a  peaceful  retreat 
of  the  discouraged  invaders ;  on  the  night  of 
the  Battle  of  Wisconsin  Heights,  reasonable 
prudence  in  keeping  an  interpreter  in  camp,  in 
a  hostile  country,  would  have  enabled  Nea- 
pope's  peaceful  mission  to  succeed;  at  the 
Bad  Axe,  as  at  Sycamore  Creek,  a  decent 
regard  for  the  accepted  amenities  of  civilized 
warfare,  on  the  part  of  the  reckless  soldiers 
on  the  steamer  "  Warrior,"  would  have  secured 
an  abject  surrender  of  the  entire  hostile  band, 
which  was,  instead,  ruthlessly  butchered ;  while 
the  sending  out  of  Sioux  bloodhounds  upon  the 
trail  of  the  few  worn-out  fugitives,  in  the  very 

1  Autobiography f  pp.  99,  100. 


198       Essays  in  Western  History 

country  beyond  the  great  river  to  which  the 
Sauks  had  been  persistently  ordered,  capped 
the  climax  of  a  bloody  and  costly  contest 
characterized  on  our  part  by  gross  misman- 
agement, bad  faith,  and  sheer  heartlessness. 

It  is  generally  stated  in  the  published  his- 
tories of  those  commonwealths  that  the  defeat 
„„  ^  of  Black  Hawk  opened  to  settlement 

what  was  ^ 

accom-  northern  Illinois  and  the  southern 
/>itshed  portion  of  what  is  now  Wisconsin. 
Unqualified,  this  statement  is  misleading.  In- 
directly, it  is  true  that  the  war  proved  a 
powerful  agent  in  the  development  of  that 
region.  The  British  Band  was  in  itself  no 
obstacle  to  legitimate  settlement,  the  fron- 
tiers of  which  were  far  removed  from  Black 
Hawk's  village,  and  need  nbt  to  have  crowded 
it  for  several  years  to  come.  Although  the 
natural  outgrowth  of  the  excitable  condition 
of  the  border,  the  war  was  not  essential  as  a 
means  of  clearing  the  path  of  civiHzation. 
What  it  did  accomplish  in  the  way  of  territo- 
rial development,  was  to  call  national  attention, 
in  a  marked  manner,  to  the  attractions  and  re- 
sources of  an  important  section  of  the  North- 
west. The  troops  acted  as  explorers  of  a  large 
tract  concerning  which  nothing  had  hitherto 
definitely  been  known  among  white  men.    The 


The  Black  Hawk  War  1 99 

Sauks  themselves  were,  previous  to  their  inva- 
sion, unacquainted  with  the  Rock  River  valley 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Kishwaukee,  and  had 
but  vague  notions  of  its  swamps  and  lakes, 
gathered  from  their  Winnebago  guides,  who 
alone  were  well  informed  on  the  subject.  From 
Wisconsin  Heights  to  the  Bad  Axe,  every  foot 
of  the  trackless  way  was  as  unknown  to  the 
Sauks  and  their  pursuers  as  was  the  interior  of 
Africa  to  Stanley,  when  he  first  groped  his  way 
across  the  Dark  Continent.  During  and  imme- 
diately following  the  war,  the  newspapers  of 
the  Eastern  States  were  filled  with  descriptions, 
more  or  less  florid,  of  the  scenic  charms  of, 
and  the  possibilities  for,  extractive  industries 
in,  the  Rock  River  valley,  of  the  groves  and 
prairies  on  every  hand,  of  the  park-like  region 
of  the  Four  Lakes,  of  the  Wisconsin  River 
highlands,  and  of  the  picturesque  hills  and 
dense  forests  of  Western  Wisconsin.  From  the 
press  were  issued  books  and  pamphlets  by 
the  score,  giving  sketches  of  the  war  and  ac- 
counts of  the  newly  discovered  paradise  —  for 
the  most  part  crude  publications  abounding  in 
gross  errors,  and  to-day  practically  unknown 
save  to  bibliographers  and  collectors.  But  in 
their  own  way  and  season  they  advertised  the 
country  and  set  flowing  thither  a  tide  of  immi- 


200       Essays  in  Western  History 

gration.  There  necessarily  followed,  in  due 
time,  the  opening  to  sale  of  public  lands  here- 
tofore reserved,  and  the  purchase  of  what  terri- 
tory remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Indian 
tribes  of  the  district.  Quite  as  important,  the 
decisive  ending  of  this  war  with  the  Sauks 
completely  humbled  the  spirit  of  the  mischief- 
making  Winnebagoes,  so  that  they  never  re- 
sumed their  old-time  arrogant  tone,  and  were 
quite  content  to  allow  the  affair  to  remain  the 
last  of  the  Indian  uprisings  in  either  Illinois 
or  Wisconsin. 

This  incidental  subduing  of  the  Winneba- 
goes, and  the  broad  and  liberal  advertising 
given  to  the  theatre  of  disturbance,  were  there- 
fore the  two  practical  and  immediate  results 
of  the  Black  Hawk  War,  the  consequence  of 
which  was  at  once  to  give  an  enormous  impetus 
to  the  development  of  both  the  State  of  Illinois 
and  the  Territory  of  Wisconsin.^ 

1  Wisconsin  Territory  was  erected  in  1836. 


IV 

THE  STORY  OF  MACKINAC 


IV 

THE   STORY   OF  MACKINAC 

MACKINAC  has  played  a  considerable 
part  on  the  stage  of  Western  history. 
Early  recognized  as  a  vantage-point,  com- 
manding the  commerce  of  the  three  uppermost 
A  struggle  lakes  of  the  great  chain,  —  Huron, 
formastery  Michigan,  and  Superior,  —  red  men 
and  white  men  have  struggled  for  its  mastery, 
tribe  against  tribe,  nation  against  nation.  The 
fleur-de-lis,  the  union  jack,  and  the  stars  and 
stripes,  have  here  each  in  their  turn  been 
symbols  of  conqueror  and  conquered;  coun- 
cils have  been  held  here,  and  treaties  signed, 
which  settled  the  political  ownership  of  fertile 
regions  as  wide  as  all  Europe ;  and  when  at 
last  armed  hostilities  ceased  through  the  final 
surrender  to  the  Republic,  when  the  toma- 
hawk was  buried  and  the  war-post  painted 
white,  a  new  warfare  opened  at  Mackinac  — 
the  commercial  struggle  of  the  great  fur-trade 
companies,  whose  rival  banners  contested  the 


204       Essays  in  Western  History 

sway  of  lands  stretching  from  Athabasca  to 
the  Platte,  from  the  Columbia  to  Georgian  Bay. 
It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  invasion  of  Chippewa 
Michillimackinac  by  the  long-haired  coureurs 
de  bois  of  New  France,  to  the  invasion  of 
Mackinac  Island  by  modern  armies  of  summer 
tourists  from  New  York  and  New  England. 
In  attempting,  within  this  narrow  compass,  to 
tell  the  story  of  Mackinac,  it  will  be  imprac- 
ticable to  take  more  than  a  bird's-eye  view. 

In  the  first  place,  let  us  understand  that 
the  term  Mackinac,  as  used  in  our  earliest 
Three  history,  is  the  title  of  the  entire  dis- 
Mackinacs  ^j-ict  hcreabout,  as  well  as  that  of  a 
particular  settlement.  There  have  been,  in 
chronological  succession,  at  least  three  distinct 
localities  specifically  styled  Mackinac:  (i)  Be- 
tween 1670  and  1672,  Mackinac  Island,  near 
the  centre  of  the  strait,  was  the  seat  of  a 
French  Jesuit  mission.  (2)  From  1672  to  1706, 
the  Mackinac  of  history  was  on  the  north  side 
of  the  strait,  upon  Point  St.  Ignace,  and  wholly 
under  the  French  regime.  (3)  From  17 12  to 
1781  Mackinac  was  on  the  south  side  of  the 
strait — until  1763,  just  west  of  the  present 
Mackinaw  City,  and  possibly  between  1764  and 
1 78 1  at  some  point  farther  west  along  the  coast 
of  Lake  Michigan;  this  south-side  Mackinac 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  205 

was  at  first  French  and  then  Enghsh,  and  the 
site  near  Mackinaw  City  has  come  to  be  known 
in  history  as  "  Old  Mackinaw."  Finally,  the 
Mackinac  settlement  was  in  178 1  once  more 
placed  upon  the  island,  and  while  at  first  under 
English  domination  at  last  became  American. 
A  remembrance  of  these  facts  will  help  to 
dispel  the  fog  which  has  often  obscured  our 
historical  view  of  Mackinac. 

That  indefatigable  explorer  of  high  seas  and 

pathless  forests,  Samuel  de  Champlain,  planted 

the  first  permanent  French  colony  in 

Champlain     ^  ,  -  ^         r     ^-^       ^ 

hears  of  Canada  on  the  rock  of  Quebec,  in 
Lake  1608  —  only  a  twelvemonth  later  than 

Superior  ,  ,.   , 

the  establishment  of  Jamestown,  and 
full  twelve  years  before  the  coming  to  Plymouth 
of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  It  was  seven  years  be- 
fore Champlain  saw  Lake  Huron,  his  farthest 
point  west  in  the  Hmitless  domain  which  the 
King  of  France  had  set  him  to  govern.  Twenty- 
one  years  had  passed  —  years  of  heroic  strug- 
gling to  push  back  the  walls  of  savagery  which 
hemmed  him  in;  when  one  day  there  came 
to  Quebec,  in  the  fleet  of  Indian  canoes  from 
this  far  northwest,  —  which  annually  picked 
its  way  over  fifteen  hundred  miles  of  rugged 
waterways  beset  with  a  multitude  of  terrors, — 
a  naked  Algonkin,  besmeared  with  grease  and 


2o6       Essays  in  Western  History 

colored  clays,  who  laid  at  the  feet  of  the  great 
white  chief  a  lump  of  copper  mined  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Superior.  A  shadowy  region 
this,  as  far  removed  from  the  ordinary  haunts 
of  the  adventurous  woodsmen  of  New  France 
as  were  the  headwaters  of  the  Nile  from  the 
African  explorers  of  a  generation  ago,  and 
quite  as  dangerous  of  access. 

It  was  five  years  later  (1634)  before  Cham- 
plain  could  see  his  way  to  sending  a  proper 
Jean  emissary  into  the  Northwest.     Finally 

Nicoiet  Qj^g  ^^g  found  in  the  person  of  young 
Jean  Nicoiet,  whom  Champlain  had  had  trained 
in  the  forest  for  tasks  like  this.  Conveyed  by 
Indian  oarsmen  engaged  by  relays  in  the  sev- 
eral tribes  through  which  he  passed,  Nicoiet 
pushed  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  portaged  around 
the  rapids  at  Lachine,  ascended  the  trough 
of  the  turbulent  Ottawa  with  its  hundred  water- 
falls, portaged  over  to  Lake  Nipissing,  de- 
scended French  Creek  to  Georgian  Bay,  and 
threading  the  gloomy  archipelago  of  the  Mani- 
toulins,  sat  at  last  in  a  Chippewa  council  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Doubtless  he  here  heard 
of  Lake  Superior,  not  many  miles  away,  but 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  saw  its  waters.  In- 
tent on  finding  a  path  which  led  to  the  China 
Sea,  supposed  not  to  be  far  beyond  this  point, 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  207 

he  turned  south  again,  and  pushing  on  through 
the  straits  of  Mackinac  found  and  traversed 
Lake  Michigan.  He  traded  and  made  treaties 
with  the  astonished  tribesmen  of  Wisconsin 
and  Illinois,  who  in  him  saw  their  first  white 
man,  and  thus  brought  the  Northwest  within 
the  sphere  of  French  influence.^ 

Seven  years  later  the  Jesuit  missionaries, 
Jogues  and  Raymbault,  following  in  the  path 
The  of  Nicolet,  said  mass  before  two  thou- 

earhest        g^j^j  breech-clouted  savap^es  at  Sault 

French  ° 

Ste.  Marie.  Afifairs  moved  slowly 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  upon  these  far- 
away borders  of  New  France.  Jogues  and 
Raymbault  had  long  been  ashes  before  the 
Northwest  again  appeared  on  the  pages  of 
history;  nearly  a  generation  had  passed  be- 
fore the  daring  forest  traders  and  explorers, 
Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  arrived  upon  the 
scene  (1658-62),  discovered  the  Upper  Mis- 
sissippi, discovered   Lake  Superior,  and  first 

1  Authorities  on  Nicolet  are :  Butterfield's  History  of  the 
Discovery  of  the  Northwest  by  John  Nicolet  (Cincinnati,  1881) ; 
Gosselin's  Les  Normands  au  Canada  — Jean  AHcolet  (Evreux, 
1893) ;  Jouan's  "  Interprete  voyageur  au  Canada,  1618-1642," 
in  La  Revue  Canadienne,  Fevrier,  1886;  Suite's  Melanges 
d^histoire  et  de  littirature  (Ottawa,  1876) ;  articles  by  Garneau, 
Ferland,  Suite,  etc.,  in  Wis.  Historical  Collections ;  and  a 
bibliography  by  Butterfield  in  ibid.^  xi,,  pp.  23,  25. 


2o8       Essays  in  Western  History 

made  known  to  the  English  the  fur-trading 
capabilities  of  the  Hudson  Bay  region.  The 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  organized  in 
London,  with  these  renegade  Frenchmen  as 
their  pilots,  in  1670;  the  following  year,  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  where  the  Jesuits  had  a  fairly 
prosperous  mission,  Saint-Lusson  formally 
took  possession  of  the  great  Northwest  for 
the  French  king.^  I  suppose  that  Saint- 
Lusson,  when  he  floated  the  banner  of  France 
at  the  gateway  of  Lake  Superior,  knew  nothing 
of  his  English  neighbors,  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company;  unconsciously  he  made  an  im- 
portant play  for  France  on  the  American 
chess-board;  but  a  century  later  England 
won  the  game. 

Those  who  have  read  Parkman's  Jesuits'^ 
will  remember  that  the  Hurons,  whose  habitat 
Flight  of  had  long  been  upon  the  eastern  shores 
the  Hurons  ^^  Georgian  Bay,  retreated  northward 
and  westward  before  the  advance  of  the  all- 
conquering  Iroquois.  At  first  taking  refuge 
with  starving  Algonkins  on  the  ManitouHn 
Islands,  and  on  the  mainland  hereabout,  they 

1  See  Saint-Lusson's  proc^s-verbal  (June  14,  1671),  in 
Wis.  Hist.  Colls. ^  xi.,  pp.  26-29. 

2  The  present  article,  however,  is  in  this  respect  based 
upon  Thwaites's  The  Jesuit  Relations  and  Allied  Documents 
(Cleveland,  1896-1902). 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  209 

were  soon  driven  forth  by  their  merciless  foe, 
and  made  their  stand  in  the  swamps  and 
tangled  woods  of  far-away  Wisconsin.  Many 
of  them  centred  upon  Chequamegon  Bay,  the 
island-locked  estuary  near  the  southwest  corner 
of  Lake  Superior,  the  ancient  home  of  the 
Chippewas.  Here  Radisson  and  GroseilHers 
visited  and  traded  with  them.^  The  Jesuit 
Menard,  who  had  accompanied  these  adven- 
turers, —  the  first  missionary  to  follow  in  the 
wake  of  Jogues  and  Raymbault,  —  had  stopped 
at  Keweenaw  Bay  to  minister  to  the  Ottawas, 
and  later  lost  his  life  while  trying  to  reach  a 
village  of  Hurons,  crouching,  fear-stricken,  in 
the  forest  fastnesses  around  the  headwaters 
of  the  Black  River. ^ 

Then  came,  three  years  later  (1665),  Father 
At  Chequa-  Alloliez,  to  rcopcu  at  Chequamegon 
megonBay  j^^y  i^^  Jesuit  mission  on  our  great- 
est inland  sea.     Alloliez  being  ordered,  after 

1  Radisson's  "  Journal "  first  appeared  in  Prince  Soc. 
Pubs.,  xvi.  (Boston,  1885).  Portions  were  published  with 
notes,  in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls. ^  xi.  See  the  following  monographs 
on  this  subject:  Campbell's  "Exploration  of  L.  Superior," 
Parkman  Club  Pubs.,  No.  2  (Milw.,  1896),  and  Moore's  ''Dis- 
coveries of  L.  Superior,'*  in  Mick.  Polit.  Sci.  Ass.  Pubs.,  ii., 
No.  5  (Ann  Arbor,  1897). 

2  See  Campbell's  "  Pfere  R6ne  Menard,"  Parkman  Club 
Pubs.,  No.  II  (Milw.,  1897). 

14 


2IO       Essays  in  Western  History 

four  years  of  arduous  and  I  fear  unprofitable 
labor  at  Chequamegon,  to  found  a  mission 
at  Green  Bay,  was  succeeded  (1669)  by  the 
youthful  Marquette.  But  Marquette  was  not 
long  at  Chequamegon  before  his  half-naked 
parishioners  provoked  to  quarrel  their  power- 
ful western  neighbors,  the  Sioux,  the  result 
being  (1671)  that  the  Chequamegon  bands, 
and  Marquette  with  them,  were  driven  like 
leaves  before  an  autumn  blast  eastward  along 
the  southern  shore  of  the  great  lake;  the 
Ottawas  taking  up  their  homes  in  the  Mani- 
toulln  Islands,  the  Hurons  accompanying  Mar- 
quette to  the  island  of  Mackinac,  where,  the 
previous  year,  the  Jesuits  had  founded  the 
mission  of  St.  Ignace. 

Mackinac  Island  was  then  noted  throughout 
this  region  for  its  abundance  of  fish,  in  both 
„  summer  and  winter:  also  because  it 

Hurons  ' 

return  to  stood  in  the  path  to  and  from  the 
Mackinac  gouthwest.  In  former  days  the  island 
and  the  neighboring  mainland  had  been  thickly 
populated  by  several  tribes  of  Indians  who  had 
been  driven  westward  by  the  Iroquois.  Now 
that  peace  with  the  Iroquois  had  been  estab- 
lished, with  hopes  of  its  being  permanent,  the 
tribesmen  had  again  flocked  to  the  straits,  mak- 
ing the  region  highly  desirable  as  a  mission  resi- 


The  Story  of  Macktjzac  211 

dence.  It  was  therefore  to  their  old  homes  on 
the  island  that  the  Hurons  now  returned  with 
Marquette.  Here  the  young  priest  ministered 
to  the  miserable  savages  about  him,  and  to  the 
handful  of  nomadic  fur-trade  employes  who 
in  spring  and  autumn  gathered  at  this  isolated 
frontier  station  of  New  France  on  their  way 
to  and  from  the  great  wilderness  beyond. 

Soon  after  his  arrival,  apparently  within  a 
year,  the  mission  was  moved  to  the  mainland, 
Removal  to  on  the  sitc  of  the  present  village  of 
St.  ignace  g^-  ignace.  There  is  abundant  ground 
for  belief  that  the  St.  Ignace  monument,  which 
is  visited  each  summer  by  thousands  of  tourists, 
represents  the  place  where  stood  the  "  rude 
and  unshapely  chapel,  its  sides  of  logs  and  its 
roof  of  bark,"  in  which  Marquette  thereafter 
conducted  the  offices  of  the  Church.  Under 
what  circumstances  the  removal  took  place, 
we  know  not.  Quite  likely  the  island,  at  first 
resorted  to  because  of  its  safety  from  attack 
by  foes,  was  found  too  small  for  the  villages 
and  fields  of  the  Indians  who  now  centred  here 
in  large  numbers;  and  moreover  was  found 
difficult  of  approach  in  time  of  summer  storm, 
or  when  the  ice  was  weak  in  spring  and  early 
winter.  The  long  continuance  of  peace  with 
the  Iroquois  removed  for  the  time  all  danger 


212       Essays  in  Wester7i  History 

from  that  quarter,  and  events  proved  that  they 
had  made  their  last  attack  upon  the  tribesmen 
of  these  far  Western  waters. 

Louis  Jolliet,  a  coureur  de  bois,  was  sent  forth 
by  the  authorities  at  Quebec  (1672)  to  explore 
Jolliet  and  ^^  Mississippi  River,  about  which  so 
Marquette  much  had  been  heard,  and  by  that 
route  to  reach,  if  may  be,  the  Great  Western 
Ocean  —  for  the  road  to  India,  either  through 
the  continent  or  by  way  of  the  Northwest 
Passage,  was  still  being  sought  in  those 
days.  He  arrived  in  December  at  Point  St. 
Ignace,  bringing  orders  to  Marquette  to  ac- 
company him.  The  conversion  of  the  Indians 
went  hand  in  hand,  in  New  France,  with 
the  extension  of  commerce;  no  trading-post 
was  complete  without  its  missionary,  no  explor- 
ing expedition  without  its  ghostly  counsellor. 
Marquette,  a  true  soldier  of  the  cross,  obeyed 
his  marching  orders,  and  on  the  seventeenth 
of  May  following,  handed  his  spiritual  task 
over  to  Father  Philippe  Pearson,  and  went 
forth  to  help  discover  unknown  lands  and 
carry  to  their  peoples  the  word  of  Christ. 
With  Jolliet  he  entered  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi at  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  proceeded  far 
enough  down  the  great  river  to  establish  the 
fact  that  it  emptied  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  2 1 3 

and  not  the  Pacific  Ocean.  It  is  possible  that 
Radisson  and  GroseiUiers  were  on  the  Missis- 
sippi thirteen  years  before  them;  but  Radis- 
son's  Journal,  written  in  England  long  after, 
was  not  published  until  our  own  time,  and  it  is 
not  at  all  likely  that  Jolliet  and  Marquette,  or 
any  one  else  of  importance  in  New  France, 
ever  heard  of  this  prior  claim.  The  merit  of 
carefully  planned,  premeditated  discovery  cer- 
tainly rests  with  Jolliet  and  his  companion. 

It  so  happened  — the  story  of  the  swamping 

of  Jolliet's  home-returning  canoe  in  the  wild 

rapids  of  Lachine  is  a  familiar  one  — 

queue's        that  the  detailed  journals  and  maps 

Journal       ^f  ^j^^  ^^j^^  ^^^^^  j^^^ .  ^hercas  the 

simple  story  which  Marquette  wrote  at  the 
Green  Bay  mission  and  transmitted  by  Indian 
courier  to  his  father  superior  at  Quebec,  reached 
its  destination  and  was  published  to  the  world 
for  the  glory  of  the  church.  Thus  it  was  that 
the  gentle,  unassuming  Marquette  became  un- 
wittingly its  only  historian ;  fate  willed  that  his 
name  should  be  more  commonly  associated 
with  the  great  discovery  than  that  of  his  secular 
companion.  Four  years  later  the  weary  bones 
of  this  missionary-explorer,  who  had  died  on 
his  way  thither  from  the  savage  camps  of  the 
Illinois,  were  laid  to  rest  "  in  a  little  vault  in 


214       Essays  in  Western  History 

the  middle  of  the  chapel "  at  St.  Ignace.  In 
September,  1877,  when  antiquarians  could  but 
ingeniously  guess  at  the  site  of  this  early  mis- 
sion in  the  wilderness,  the  bones  of  Father 
Marquette  were  discovered  in  the  rude  grave 
wherein  they  had  rested  for  two  centuries,  and 
to-day  are  visible  relics  for  inspiration  to  deeds 
of  holiness.^ 

Throughout  the  seventeenth  century  the 
outpost  of  Mackinac  at  Point  St.  Ignace  — 
A  French  MichilHmackinac,  in  those  easy-go- 
outpst  jj^g  ^^yg  when  there  was  more  time 
in  which  to  pronounce  the  name  —  remained 
the  most  important  French  military  and  trad- 
ing station  in  the  upper  lakes,  for  it  guarded 
the  gateway  between  Huron,  Michigan,  and 
Superior ;  and  every  notable  expedition  to  the 
Northwest  waters  had  perforce  to  stop  here. 
We  must  not  think  of  this   Mackinac  of  the 

1  A  detailed  account,  in  German,  of  the  discovery  (said 
to  have  been  written  by  Father  Edward  Jacker,  then  the 
Catholic  missionary  at  St.  Ignace)  appeared  first  in  the  St. 
Louis  Pastoral-Blatt ;  an  English  translation  was  published 
in  the  Green  Bay  (Wis.)  Advocate,  August  29,  1878.  The  site 
of  the  old  mission  was  discovered  May  4,  but  the  remains  of 
Marquette  were  not  exhumed  until  September  3.  See  contro- 
versial articles  in  the  St.  Louis  Sunday  Messenger,  June  24, 
1877,  and  in  the  Chicago  Times,  August  14  and  29,  and 
September  13,  1879.  For  details  of  Marquette's  career,  see 
Thwaites's  Father  Marquette  (New  York,  1902). 


The  Story  of  Machinac  2 1 5 

seventeenth  century,  strategetically  important 
though  it  was,  as  a  settlement  in  any  modern 
sense.  The  policy  of  the  rulers  of  New  France 
was  to  maintain  the  interior  of  the  continent 
as  a  fur-bearing  wilderness.  Unlike  Anglo- 
Saxons,  they  had  no  desire  to  plant  settle- 
ments simply  as  settlements.  They  had  not  the 
colonizing  spirit  of  EngHshmen.  To  carry 
the  fur-trade  to  the  uttermost  limits,  to  bring 
the  savages  to  at  least  a  nominal  recognition 
of  the  cross,  were  their  chief  aims;  to  this 
end,  palisaded  trading-posts,  which  they  rather 
grandiloquently  called  forts,  were  established 
throughout  the  country,  the  officers  of  which 
were  rare  diplomatists,  and  bullied  and  cajoled 
the  red  men  as  occasion  demanded.  Around 
each  of  these  little  forts,  and  Mackinac  was 
one  of  them,  were  small  groups  of  habitants, 
voyageurs,  and  coureurs  de  bois,  who  could 
hardly  be  called  colonists,  for  few  of  them 
expected  to  lay  their  bones  in  the  wilderness, 
but  eventually  to  return  to  their  own  people 
on  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence,  when  enriched  or 
their  working  days  were  over.  It  was  rather 
an  army  of  occupation  than  a  body  of  settlers. 
The  Httle  log  fort  at  Mackinac,  calculated  only 
to  withstand  a  fusillade  of  savage  arrows  and 
musket-balls,  was  the  principal  feature  of  the 


2i6       Essays  in  Western  History 

place,  and  the  commandant  the  chief  person- 
age. After  him,  the  long-robed  Jesuit,  and 
then  the  swarm  of  folk  dependent  on  the  spas- 
modic fur-trade. 

In  the  year  of  grace  1701,  the  little  group 
upon  Point  St.  Ignace  received  word  one  day 
Establish  ^^^  ^  ^^^  post.  Called  Detroit,  had 
mentof  been  established  away  down  in  the 
Detroit  unknown  country  at  the  narrow  mouth 
of  Lake  Huron,  which  was  henceforth,  under 
one  Cadillac,  to  be  the  centre  of  commerce  in 
these  Western  parts.  Heretofore,  owing  to  the 
Iroquois  stoutly  holding  the  lower  lakes  against 
the  French,  progress  to  the  far  Northwest  had 
been  altogether  by  way  of  the  raging  Ottawa. 
But  now,  after  seventy-five  long  years  of 
journeying  by  that  toilsome  route,  it  had  from 
various  reasons  become  possible  to  come  to 
Mackinac  through  Lakes  Ontario  and  Erie. 
This  new  post,  Detroit,  was  to  command  a  still 
wider  range  than  that  of  Mackinac ;  the  gar- 
rison, was  soon  withdrawn  thither;  the  fur- 
traders,  both  white  and  Indian,  for  the  most 
part  soon  followed  —  it  was  easy  for  a  popu- 
lation like  this  to  pull  up  stakes  and  hie  away 
at  beat  of  drum.  Nearly  everybody  went  to 
the  new  Mecca,  save  the  Jesuit  missionaries, 
who  were  not  wanted  by  this  new  man  Cadillac, 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  2 1 7 

a  hater  of  the  "  black  robes."  For  five  years 
the  good  fathers  —  there  were  then  three 
of  them  —  maintained  their  Httle  chapel  and 
school  here  on  Point  St.  Ignace;  but  they 
ministered  to  an  ever-decreasing,  disorderly 
flock,  and  at  last,  burning  their  crude  build- 
ings, with  a  few  white  followers  retired  dis- 
comfited to  Quebec. 

For  six  years  there  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  any  French  establishment  hereabout.  But 
^^oid  in  1712  Governor-General  Vaudreuil 

Mackinaw''  ggj^^.  £)g  Louvigny,  a  noted  frontier 
captain,  to  restore  the  abandoned  post  on  the 
upper  waters.  This  he  did,  but  upon  the  south 
shore  of  the  strait,  not  far  west  of  the  present 
Mackinaw  City;  and  over  there  on  the  main- 
land, at  what  came  in  time  to  be  known  as 
"Old  Mackinaw,"^  —  although  it  was,  as  we 

1  Note  the  orthographic  change.  The  historic  name  is 
Mackinac,  an  abbreviation  of  Michillimackinac,  and  such  is 
to-day  the  legal  designation  of  Fort  Mackinac,  Strait  of 
Mackinac,  and  Mackinac  Island;  but  the  pronunciation 
is  Mack'inaw.  The  spelling  has  been  made  phonetic  in  the 
cases  of  Old  Mackinaw  and  Mackinaw  City,  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  island,  and  many  writers  prefer  to  use  the 
phonetic  form  whenever  mentioning  any  of  the  several 
Mackinacs.  A  cultured  native  of  Mackinac  Island  has  told 
me  that,  so  far  as  he  knew,  but  one  person  pronounced  it 
yi-3,QV\nack ;  and  he  was  Samuel  Abbott,  of  the  American 
Fur  Company,  who  in  his  day  was  regarded  as  an  eccentric. 


2i8       Essays  in  Western  History 

have  seen,  not  the  oldest  Mackinac,  —  occurred 
such  historic  events  as  are  spread  upon  the 
records  to  the  credit  of  this  name  between 
1 71 2  and  1763.  It  was  on  the  log  ramparts 
of  Old  Mackinaw  that,  in  token  of  the  fall  of 
New  France,  the  fleur-de-lis  was  at  last  hauled 
down  on  September  28,  1 76 1,  and  the  union 
jack  proudly  lifted  to  the  breeze.  Here,  upon 
the  fourth  of  June,  1763,  occurred  that  cruel 
massacre  of  the  English  garrison,  which  Park- 
man  has  so  vividly  described  for  us  in  his 
Conspiracy  of  Pontiac. 

A  year  or  more  later  the  English  rebuilt  their 
fort,  but  whether  or  not  upon  the  site  of  the 
The  massacre  is  a  moot  question.     There 

English  appears  to  be  good  reason  for  the 
belief  that  it  was  among  the  sand-dunes  farther 
west  along  the  coast ;  for  in  the  official  corre- 
spondence of  the  next  fifteen  years  there  is 
much  complaint  upon  the  part  of  command- 
ants that  their  "  rickety  picket  is  commanded 
by  sand  hills"  —  a  condition  which  does  not 
exist  at  the  old  site  near  Mackinaw  City. 

To  this  rickety  picket  there  came  one 
October  day,  in  the  year  1779,  Patrick  Sin- 
clair, lieutenant-governor  of  Michillimackinac 
and  its  dependencies,  charged  with  the  rebuild- 
ing and  enlarging  of  his  Majesty's  post  in  these 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  2 1 9 

parts.  The  Revolutionary  War  was  in  progress. 
George  Rogers  Clark  had  captured  Kaskaskia 
and  Vincennes;  his  emissaries  were  treating 
with  Indian  chiefs  away  off  in  Wisconsin ;  there 
were  rumours  of  Clark's  intended  foray  on 
Detroit;  and  some  suspicions  that  the  **  Bos- 
tonnais,"  as  the  French  Canadians  called  these 
leather-shirted  Virginians,  had  designs  of  put- 
ting a  war  vessel  upon  Lake  Michigan.  Sin- 
clair saw  at  once  that  the  old  site  was  untenable 
and  the  fort  beyond  repair. 

In  advance  of  orders  he  made  a  bold  step. 
Seven  miles  away  to  the  northeast  of  Old 
The  island  Mackiuaw,  in  the  midst  of  the  strait, 
reoccupied  j^y  ^^  comcly  island  whereon  had 
first  been  established,  a  hundred  and  nine  years 
before,  the  Jesuit  mission  of  St.  Ignace  —  **  La 
Grosse  Isle,"  the  Canadians  called  it,  although 
smaller  than  its  neighbor,  Bois  Blanc.  The 
Indians  deemed  it  a  sort  of  shrine,  where  at 
times  they  gathered  at  their  medicine  feasts, 
and  to  wliich,  as  to  a  sanctuary,  they  fled  in 
periods  ^5f  extreme  danger.  Frenchmen  were 
more  considerate  of  the  superstitions  of  the 
dusky  tribesmen  than  were  the  intolerant 
English.  This  now  untenanted  island  Sinclair 
appropriated  to  the  king's  use,  although  some 
eighteen   months  later  he  formally  bought  it 


220       Essays  in  Weslent  History 

from  the  Indians  for  ;^5000,  New  York  cur- 
rency. A  month  after  his  arrival  the  lieutenant- 
governor  began  to  erect  a  durable  fort  on  the 
island,  and  thither,  upon  receiving  tardy  per- 
mission from  his  superiors,  he  finally  removed 
in  the  spring  of  1781,  with  him  going  the  now 
revived  Catholic  mission  and  the  entire  fur-trade 
colony  from  the  south  shore.  The  new  fort 
still  bore  the  name  of  Fort  Mackinac,  and  La 
Grosse  Isle  of  the  French  henceforth  was 
known  in  the  English  reports  as  Mackinac 
Island. 

By  the  treaty  of  Paris  (1783),  Mackinac 
came  within  the  boundary  of  the  United  States ; 
Arrival  of  but  the  English  still  held  the  whip- 
Americans  hand  in  thesc  parts,  and  upon  sundry 
pretexts  continued  to  hold  this  and  other  lake 
posts  until  the  Jay  treaty  set  matters  right. 
In  October,  1796,  American  troops  first  took 
possession  of  the  post,  and  this  gateway  to  the 
upper  lakes  was  at  last  ours.  The  English, 
however,  were  still  hopeful  that  they  would 
some  day  win  this  part  of  the  coulfcry  back 
again,  and  their  garrison  retired  to  Isle  St. 
Josephs,  only  some  forty  miles  to  the  north- 
east, where  in  1795  they  had  built  a  fort. 

The  French  and  half-breeds  did  not  at  first 
relish   Yankee   interference    in   their    beloved 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  221 

Northwest.  They  had  maintained  harmonious 
relations  with  the  Engb'sh,  who  fostered  the 
fur-trade  and  employed  the  French  with  liber- 
ality. Then,  too,  among  the  Creoles  the  repu- 
tation of  these  Americans  was  not  of  the  best. 
They  were  known  to  be  a  busy,  bustling, 
driving  people,  quite  out  of  tune  with  the 
easy-going  methods  of  the  French,  and  were, 
moreover,  an  agricultural  race  that  was  fast 
narrowing  the  limits  of  the  hunting-grounds. 
The  Frenchmen  felt  that  their  interests  in  this 
respect  were  identical  with  those  of  the  savages, 
hence  we  find  in  the  correspondence  of  the 
time  a  bitter  tone  adopted  towards  the  new- 
comers, who  were  regarded  as  intruders  and 
covetous  disturbers  of  existing  commercial  and 
social  relations. 

When  war  broke  out  between  England  and 
the  United  States,  in  18 12,  naturally  the  Creoles 
En  lish  ^^  ^^^  Northwest  were  against  us,  and 
capture  the  freely  entered  the  service  of  their  old 
and  well-tried  friends,  the  English. 
Fort  Mackinac  was  then  garrisoned  by  "57 
effective  men,  including  officers."  There  had 
been  no  news  sent  here  of  the  declaration  of 
war,  although  the  American  lieutenant  in 
charge.  Porter  Hanks,  was  expecting  it.  July 
17,  1 8 12,  a  British  force  of  a  thousand  whites 


222       Essays  in  Western  History 

and  Indians  from  Fort  St.  Josephs  secretly 
effected  a  landing  at  the  cove  on  the  north- 
west shore  of  the  island,  —  known  to-day  as 
"  British  Landing,"  —  took  possession  of  the 
heights  overlooking  the  fort,  and  then  coolly 
informed  the  commandant  that  hostilities  had 
been  declared  between  the  two  nations,  and  a 
surrender  would  be  in  order.  The  Americans 
were  clearly  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy,  and 
promptly  capitulated. 

The  old  fort  had  from  the  first  been  in  poor 
condition.  The  English,  once  more  in  posses- 
sion, built  a  new  and  stronger  fort  upon  the 
higher  land  to  the  rear,  which  they  had  occu- 
pied, and  named  it  Fort  George,  in  honor  of 
their  sovereign.  This  stronghold  was  stormed 
on  the  fourth  of  August,  1 814,  by  United 
States  troops  under  Colonel  George  Croghan, 
who  also  disembarked  at  British  Landing. 
The  English  position,  however,  was  too  strong 
for  the  assailants,  who  lost  heavily  under  the 
galling  fire  of  the  French  and  Indian  allies, 
and  Croghan  was  obhged  to  retire.  Among 
his  dead  was  Major  Holmes,  a  soldier  of  con- 
siderable reputation. 

The  treaty  of  Ghent  resulted  in  the  forti- 
fication being  restored  to  the  United  States, 
the  transfer  being  actually  made  on  July  18, 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  223 

1815.  Colonel  McDouall,  the  British  com- 
mander at  Mackinac,  was  loath  to  leave.  His 
Americans  dcspatchcs  to  headquarters  plainly 
regaintheir  indicate  that  he  thought  his  govern- 
ment weak  in  surrendering  to  the 
Americans,  for  whom  he  had  a  decided  con- 
tempt, this  Malta  of  the  Northwest.  When  at 
last  obliged  to  depart,  he  went  no  farther  than 
necessary  —  indeed  not  quite  so  far,  for  he 
built  a  fort  upon  Drummond  Island,  at  the 
mouth  of  River  St.  Mary,  territory  soon  there- 
after found  to  belong  to  the  United  States.  It 
was  not  until  thirteen  years  later  (1828)  that 
the  English  forces  were  finally  and  reluctantly 
withdrawn  from  Drummond  Island,^  and  Eng- 
hsh  agents  upon  our  northern  frontier  ceased 
craftily  to  stir  our  uneasy  Indian  wards  to 
bickerings  and  strife. 

When  the  United  States  resumed  possession 
of  Mackinac  Island  the  name  of  the  fort  built 
by  the  English  on  the  highest  ground  was 
changed  from  Fort  George  to  Fort  Holmes,  in 
honor  of  the  victim  of  the  assault  of  the  year 
before ;  but  later  this  position  was  abandoned, 
and  old  Fort  Mackinac,  built  by  Sinclair  and 

1  In  his  Druvimond  Island  {\j3iW^\VLg,W\Q}a..,  1896),  Samuel 
F.  Cook  has  given  the  history  of  the  British  occupation 
thereof,  with  numerous  illustrations  of  the  ruins  and  sur- 
roundings of  the  old  fort. 


224       Essays  in  Western  History 

capitulated  by  Hanks,  was  rehabilitated,  and 
remains  to  this  day  as  the  military  stronghold 
of  the  district. 

The  name  of  Mackinac  will  always  be  inti- 
mately associated  with  the  story  of  the  fur- 
trade.  We  have  seen  that  the  first  settlement 
Centre  of  the  upon  the  shores  of  these  straits  had 
fur-trade  j^-g  inception  in  the  primitive  com- 
merce of  the  woods;  and  chiefly  as  a  pro- 
tection to  this  trade  the  several  forts  were 
maintained  under  changing  flags  unto  our  own 
day.  In  1783  the  North  West  Fur  Company 
opened  headquarters  here ;  later,  the  Mackinac 
Company  and  the  South  West  Fur  Company 
were  formidable  competitors;  in  181 5,  with  the 
re-establishment  of  the  American  arms,  came 
the  American  Fur  Company,  of  which  John 
Jacob  Astor  was  the  controlHng  spirit. 

We  cannot  fully  understand  the  course  of 
history  in  this  region  unless  we  remember  that 
despite  the  treaty  of  Ghent  (1783),  Jay's  treaty 
(1794),  Wayne's  Indian  treaty  at  Greenville 
(i795)>  and  the  occupation  of  Fort  Mackinac 
by  United  States  troops  between  1796  and 
18 1 2,  the  fur-trade  upon  the  upper  lakes  and 
beyond  was  not  really  under  American  control 
until  after  the  War  of  1812-15;  indeed,  the 
territory  itself  was  not  until  that  time  within 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  225 

the  sphere  of  American  influence,  beyond  the 
visible  limits  of  the  armed  camps  at  Mackinac 
and  Green  Bay.  After  the  Jay  treaty,  British 
traders,  with  French  and  half-breed  clerks  and 
voyageurSj  were  still  permitted  free  intercourse 
with  the  savages  of  our  Northwest,  and  held 
substantial  domination  over  them.  The  Mack- 
inac, North  West,  and  South  West  companies 
were  composed  of  British  subjects  —  Scotch- 
men mainly  —  with  headquarters  at  Montreal, 
and  distributing  points  at  Detroit,  Mackinac, 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  Grand  Portage.  Their 
clerks  and  voyageurs  were  wide  travellers,  and 
carried  the  forest  trade  throughout  the  Far 
West,  from  Great  Slave  Lake  on  the  north  to 
the  valleys  of  the  Platte  and  the  Arkansas  on 
south,  and  to  the  parks  and  basins  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  Goods  were  sent  up  the 
lakes  from  Montreal,  either  by  relays  of  sailing 
vessels,  with  portages  of  men  and  merchandise 
at  the  Falls  of  Niagara  and  the  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  or  by  picturesque  fleets  of  bateaux  and 
canoes  up  the  Ottawa  River  and  down  French 
Creek  into  Georgian  Bay,  from  there  scattering 
to  the  companies*  various  entrepots  of  the 
South,  West,  and  North.^ 

1  See  Turner's  "  Fur  Trade  in  Wisconsin,"  Wis.  Hist.  Soc. 
Proc,  1889. 

IS 


226       Essays  in  Western  History 

The  Creole  boatmen  were  a  reckless  set. 
They  took  life  easily,  but  bore  ill  the  mildest 
The  restraints  of  the  trading  settlements ; 

Creoles  \}ci€\x  home  was  on  the  lakes  and  rivers 
and  in  Indian  camps,  where  they  joyously  par- 
took of  the  most  humble  fare,  and  on  occasion 
were  not  averse  to  suffering  extraordinary 
hardships  in  the  service  of  their  bourgeois. 
Their  pay  was  light,  but  their  thoughts  were 
lighter,  and  the  vaulted  forest  rang  with  the  gay 
laughter  of  these  heedless  adventurers ;  while 
the  pent-up  valleys  of  our  bluff-girted  streams 
echoed  the  refrains  of  their  rudely  melodious 
boating  songs,  which  served  the  double  purpose 
of  whiling  the  hours  away  and  measuring  prog- 
ress along  the  glistening  waterways. 

In  Irving's  Astoria  is  a  charming  description 
of  fur-trading  life  at  the  Grand  Portage  of 
Lake  Superior,  over  which  boats  and  cargoes 
were  carried  from  the  eastward-flowing  Pigeon 
to  the  tortuous  waters  which  glide  through 
a  hundred  sylvan  lakes  and  over  a  hundred 
dashing  rapids  into  the  wide-reaching  system 
of  Lake  Winnipeg  and  the  Assiniboin.^  The 
book  records  the  heroic  trans-continental  expe- 

1  For  historical  sketch  of  Grand  Portage,  see  Wis.  Hist. 
Colls.y  xi.,  pp.  123-125.  See  N.  Y.  Nation,  Dec.  23, 1897,  pp. 
499-501,  for  corrections  of  Astoria. 


The  Story  of  Mackinac  227 

dition  of  Wilson  and  Hunt,  which  started  from 
Mackinac  one  bright  morning  in  August,  1809, 
and  wended  its  toilsome  way  along  many  a 
river  and  through  mountain-passes,  beset  by 
a  thousand  perils,  to  plant  far-distant  Astoria. 

With  the  coming  of  peace  in  181 5,  English 
fur-traders  were  forbidden  the  country,  and 
American  interests,  represented  by  Astor's 
great  company,  were  at  last  dominant  in  this 
great  field  of  commerce.  New  and  improved 
methods  were  introduced,  and  the  American 
Fur  Company  soon  had  a  firm  hold  upon  the 
Western  country ;  nevertheless,  the  great  cor- 
poration never  succeeded  in  ridding  itself  of  the 
necessity  of  employing  the  Creole  and  mixed- 
blood  voyageurs,  engages,  and  interpreters, 
and  was  obliged  to  shape  its  policy  so  as  to 
accommodate  this  great  army  of  easy-going 
subordinates. 

The  fur-trade  of  Mackinac  was  in  its  heyday 
about  the  year  1820.  Gradually,  with  the  in- 
Modern  rush  of  Settlement  and  the  consequent 
^■^^  cutting  of  the  timber,  the  commerce 

of  the  forest  waned,  until  about  1840  it  was 
practically  at  an  end,  and  the  halcyon  days  of 
Mackinac  were  over.  For  years  it  was  promi- 
nent as  the  site  of  a  Protestant  mission  to  the 
modernized    Indians   of  Michigan    and    Wis- 


228       Essays  in  Western  History 

consin ;  ^  finally,  even  this  special  interest  was 
removed  to  new  seats  of  influence,  nearer  the 
vanishing  tribes,  and  Mackinac  became  re- 
signed to  the  hum-drum  of  modern  life  —  a 
sort  of  Malta,  now  but  spasmodically  gar- 
risoned; a  fishing  station  for  the  Chicago 
trade;  a  port  of  call  for  vessels  passing  her 
door;  a  resort  for  summer  tourists;  a  scene 
which  the  historical  novelist  may  dress  to  his 
fancy;  a  shrine  at  which  the  historical  pilgrim 
may  worship,  thankful,  indeed,  that  in  what 
many  think  the  Sahara  of  Western  history  are 
left  a  few  romantic  oases  like  unto  this. 

1  For  an  account  of  this  experiment,  see  Williams's  The 
Old  Mission  Church  of  Mackinac  Island  (Detroit,  1895). 


V 
THE  STORY  OF  LA  POINTE 


THE   STORY  OF  LA   POINTE 

IN    1634,   when    the    child    born    upon    the 
**  Mayflower "    was  but  fourteen  years  of 
Jean  ^S^»    J^^"^   Nicolet,  a   daring   young 

Nicoiet  explorer,  was  despatched  by  the 
enterprising  Champlain  upon  a  journey  of 
discovery  as  far  as  Wisconsin,  a  thousand  miles 
of  canoe  journey  west  from  Quebec.  In  that 
far  distant  region,  Nicolet  made  trading  con- 
tracts, such  as  they  were,  with  a  half-score  of 
squalid  tribes  huddled  in  widely-separated 
villages  throughout  the  broad  wilderness  lying 
between  Lakes  Superior  and  Michigan.  It 
was  a  hazardous,  laborious  expedition,  far 
more  notable  in  its  day  than,  in  our  time,  is 
a  journey  through  Thibet.  Its  results  were 
slow  of  development,  for  in  the  seventeenth 
century  man  was  still  cautiously  deliberate; 
nevertheless  this  initial  visit  of  the  forest  am- 
bassador of  New  France  to  the  country  of  the 
Upper  Lakes  broke  the  path  for  a  train  of 


232       Essays  in  Western  History 

events  which  were  of  mighty  significance  in 
American   history. 

Let  us  examine  the  topography  of  Wiscon- 
sin.    That  State  is  situated  at  the  head  of  the 
chain  of  Great  Lakes.     It  is  touched 
ifaiJigtiifi.  on  the  east  by  Lake  Michigan,  on  the 
cance  of       north  by  Lake  Superior,  on  the  west 

Wisconsin     .         .        y,^.      .      .        .  .  .       .      .        .  . 

by  the  Mississippi,  and  is  drained  by 
interlacing  rivers  which  so  closely  approach 
each  other  that  the  canoe  voyager  may  with 
ease  pass  from  one  great  water  system  to 
another.  He  may  enter  the  continent  by  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  by  utilizing  numerous 
narrow  portages  in  Wisconsin  emerge  into  the 
south-flowing  Mississippi,  eventually  returning 
to  the  Atlantic  through  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
From  Lake  Michigan,  the  Fox-Wisconsin  river 
system  was  the  most  feasible  of  the  several  high- 
ways to  the  great  river.  Into  Lake  Superior 
there  flow  numerous  turbulent  streams  from 
whose  sources  short  portage  trails  lead  over  to 
the  headwaters  of  feeders  of  the  Mississippi. 
From  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Superior, 
Pigeon  River  invites  to  exploration  of  the  Win- 
nipeg country,  whence  the  canoeist  may  by  a 
half-hundred  easy  routes  reach  the  distant  re- 
gions of  Athabasca  and  the  Polar  Sea,  and  — 
as  Mackenzie  found — even  the  Pacific  Ocean. 


The  Story  of  La  Poin te  233 

In  their  early  voyages  to  the  head  of  lake 
navigation,  it  was  in  the  course  of  nature  that 
the  French  should  soon  discover  Wisconsin, 
and  having  discovered  it,  learn  that  this  was  the 
key-point  of  the  Northwest,  —  the  principal 
waterway  to  the  continental  interior.  Through 
Wisconsin's  interlacing  streams,  to  which  Nico- 
let  led  the  way.  New  France  largely  prosecuted 
her  far-reaching  forest  trade  and  missionary  ex- 
plorations, securing  a  nominal  control  of  the 
basin  of  the  Mississippi  at  a  time  when  Anglo- 
Saxons  had  gained  little  more  of  the  Atlantic 
Slope  than  could  be  seen  from  the  mast-head 
of  a  caravel.  Thus,  early  in  the  history  of 
New  France,  the  geographical  character  of 
Wisconsin  became  an  important  factor.  The 
trading  posts  and  Jesuit  missions  on  Chequa- 
megon  Bay^  of  Lake  Superior,  like  those  on 
Green  Bay  ^  of  Lake  Michigan,  soon  played  a 
prominent  part  in  American  exploration.^ 

1  In  his  authoritative  "  History  of  the  Ojibway  Nation," 
in  Minn.  Hist.  Colls. ^  v.,  Warren  prefers  the  spelling  **  Cha- 
goumigon,"  although  recognizing  "  Shagawaumikong "  and 
"  Shaugahwaumikong."  "  Chequamegon  "  is  the  current 
modern  form.  Edward  P.  Wheeler,  of  Ashland,  an  authority 
on  the  Chippewa  tongue  and  traditions,  says  the  pronuncia- 
tion should  be  "  Sheh-gu-wah-mi-kung." 

2  See  Neville  and  Martin's  Historic  Green  Bay  (Milwaukee, 
1894),  and  various  articles  in  the  Wisconsin  Historical 
Collections. 

2  See   Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  v.,  pp.  98,  99,  note,  and  Wis. 


2  34       Essays  in  Western  History 

After  Nicolet's  journey  to  Wisconsin,  there 
followed  a  long  period  in  which  the  energies 
of  New  France  were  devoted  to  fighting  back 
the  Iroquois,  who  often  swarmed  before  the 
very  gates  of  Quebec  and  Montreal.  Explo- 
ration was  for  the  time  wellnigh  impossible! 
Twenty-one  years  elapse  before  we  have  evi- 
dence of  another  white  man  treading  Wisconsin 
soil.  In  the  spring  of  1655,  the  Indians  of  the 
Fox  River  valley  were  visited  by  two 

Radisson        -r-  i       r 

and  Gro-  French  fur-traders  from  the  Lower 
seiiiiers  on    g^.  Lawrcncc,  —  Pierre  d'Esprit,  Sieur 

the  Fox  ^       .  . 

Radisson,  and  his  sister's  husband, 
Medard  Chouart,  Sieur  des  Groseilliers.  There 
are  no  characters  in  American  history  more 
picturesque  than  these  two  adventurous  traders, 
who,  in  their  fond  desire  to  **  travell  and  see 
countries,"  and  "  to  be  known  w***  the  remotest 
people,"  roamed  at  will  over  the  broad  region 
between  St.  James's  Bay  and  the  Wisconsin 
River,  having  many  curious  and  perilous  ex- 
periences. They  made  several  important 
geographical  discoveries  —  among  them,  pos- 

Hist.  Colls.,  xvi.  and  xvii.,  for  accounts  of  early  copper  mining 
on  Lake  Superior  by  Indians.  In  the  summer  of  1892, 
W.  H.  Holmes,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  found  on 
Isle  Royale  no  less  than  a  thousand  abandoned  shafts  which 
had  been  worked  by  them;  and  "enough  stone  implements 
lay  around,  to  stock  every  museum  in  the  country." 


The  Story  of  La  Poifzte         235 

sibly,  the  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
eighteen  years  before  the  visit  of  JoUiet  and 
Marquette;  while  from  a  trading  settlement 
which  they  proposed  to  the  English,  when  ill- 
treated  by  their  fellow-countrymen,  developed 
the  great  establishment  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company.  The  unconsciously-amusing  narra- 
tive which  Radisson  afterwards  wrote,  for  the 
edification  of  King  Charles  II.  of  England,  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  known  to  American 
antiquaries.^ 

Five  years  after  Radisson  and  Groseilliers 
were  upon  Fox  River,  they  were  again  in 
Atchegua-  the  Northwest,  this  time  upon  I^ake 
megon  Bay  Superior,  which  they  had  approached, 
•  in  the  company  of  a  party  of  Huron  refugees, 
by  carrying  around  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 
Skirting    the    southern    shore    of    the    lake, 

1  S>ee  Jesuit  Relations,  xlv.,  pp.  235-237,';for  Father  Lalle- 
mant's  report  of  the  discoveries  of  the  "  two  P'renchmen," 
who  had  found  "a  beautiful  River,  large,  wide,  deep,  and 
worthy  of  comparison,  they  say,  with  our  great  river  St. 
Lawrence." 

In  Franquelin's  map  of  1688,  what  is  now  Pigeon  River,  a 
part  of  the  international  boundary  between  Minnesota  and 
Canada,  is  called  Groseilliers.  An  attempt  was  made  in  the 
"Wisconsin  Legislature,  during  the  session  of  1895,  ^Y  "leiii- 
bers  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  to  have  a  proposed 
new  county  called  Radisson ;  the  name  was  adopted  by  the 
friends  of  the  bill,  but  the  measure  itself  failed  to  pass. 


236       Essays  in  Western  History 

past  the  now  famous  Pictured  Rocks,  the 
traders  and  their  savage  companions  carried 
across  Keweenaw  Point,  visited  a  band  of 
Christino  Indians  ^  not  far  from  the  mouth  of 
Montreal  River,  now  the  far  western  boundary 
between  upper  Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  and, 
portaging  across  the  base  of  Point  Chequame- 
gon,  —  then  united  to  the  mainland,  but  now 
insular,  —  entered  beautiful  Chequamegon  Bay. 
Just  where  the  Frenchmen  made  their  camp, 
it  is  impossible  from  Radisson's  confused  nar- 
rative to  say ;  but  that  it  was  upon  the  main- 
land, no  Wisconsin  antiquary  now  doubts. 
We  have  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  upon 
the  southwest  shore,  between  the  modern 
towns  of  Ashland  and  Washburn.* 

Writes  our  chronicler,  with  a  homeliness  of 
detail  suggestive  of  De  P'oe :  "  We  went  about 
to  make  a  fort  of  stakes,  w''''  was  in  this  manner. 
Suppose  that  the  watter-side  had  ben  in  one 
end;  att  the  same  end  there  should  be  mur^ 

1  Now  called  Crees. 

2  Father  Verwyst's  "  Historic  Sites  on  Chequamegon  Bay," 
in  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  xi.,  pp.  426-440,  is  accompanied  by  notes 
on  the  site  of  Radisson's  fort,  by  Sam.  S.  Fifield  and  Edward 
P.  Wheeler.  Verwyst  thinks  the  location  to  have  been 
"somewhere  between  Whittlesey's  Creek  and  Shore's  Land- 
ing ; "  Fifield  and  Wheeler  are  confident  that  it  was  at 
Boyd's  Creek. 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  22,^ 

therers,  and  att  need  we  made  a  bastion  in  a 
triangle  to  defend  us  from  assault.  The  doore 
was  neare  the  watter-side,  our  fire  was  in  the 


Chequamegon  Bay 

midle,  and  our  bed  on  the  right  hand,  covered. 
There  were  boughs  of  trees  all  about  our  fort 
layed  acrosse,  one  uppon  an  other.     Besides 


238       Essays  in  Western  History 

those  boughs,  we  had  a  long  cord  tyed  w*^'  some 
small  bells,  w""**  weare  sentereys.  Finally,  we 
made  an  ende  to  that  fort  in  2  dayes'  time." 
First  habi-  Modernize  this  statement,  and  in  im- 
tation  of      agination  we  can  see  this  first  dvvell- 

shores  of  Lake  Superior:  a  small  log  hut, 
built  possibly  on  the  extremity  of  a  small 
rocky  promontory;  the  door  opens  to  the 
water  front,  while  the  land  side,  to  the  rear  of 
the  hut,  is  defended  by  a  salient  of  palisades 
stretching  from  bank  to  bank  of  the  narrow 
promontory;  all  about  the  rude  structure  is  a 
wall  of  pine  boughs  piled  one  upon  the  other, 
with  a  long  cord  intertwined,  and  on  this  cord 
are  strung  numbers  of  the  little  hawk-bells  then 
largely  used  in  Indian  trade  for  purposes  of 
gift  and  barter.  It  was  expected  that  in  case 
of  a  night  attack  from  savages,  who  might  be 
willing  to  kill  them  for  the  sake  of  their  stores, 
the  enemy  would  stir  the  boughs  and  unwit- 
tingly ring  the  bells,  thus  arousing  the  little 
garrison.  These  ingenious  defences  were  not 
put  to  the  test,  although  no  doubt  they  had  a 
good  moral  effect  in  keeping  the  thieving 
savages  at  a  respectful  distance. 

Winter  was  just  setting  in.     The  waters  of 
the  noble  bay  were  taking  on  that  black  and 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe         239 

sullen  aspect  peculiar  to  the  season.  The 
beautiful  islands,  later  named  for  the  Twelve 
A  gloomy  Apostles,^  looked  gloomy  indeed  in 
-winter  ^j^^jj.  ^^^'\^  evergreen  mantles.  From 
the  precipitous  edges  of  the  red  sandstone 
cliffs,  which  girt  about  this  estuary  of  our  great- 
est inland  sea,  the  dense  pine  forests  stretched 
for  hundreds  of  miles  westward  and  southward. 
Here  and  there  in  these  gloomy  depths  was 
a  cluster  of  starveling  Algonquians,  or  a  band 
of  Hurons  from  east  of  Georgian  Bay,  still 
trembling  from  fear  of  a  return  of  the  Iro- 
quois, who  had  chased  them  from  Canada  into 
this  land  of  swamps  and  tangled  woods,  where 
their  safety  lay  in  hiding.  At  wide  intervals, 
uncertain  trails  led  from  village  to  village,  and 
in  places  the  rivers  were  convenient  highways ; 
these  narrow  paths,  however,  beset  with  dan- 
ger in  a  thousand  shapes,  but  emphasized  the 
unspeakable  terrors  of  the  wilderness. 

Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  true  coureurs  de 
bois,  were  undaunted  by  the  dangers  which 
daily  beset  them.  Securely  hiding  their  goods 
in  skilful  caches,  they  passed  the  winter  with 
their  Huron  and  Algonquian  neighbors  upon  a 
prolonged  hunt,  far  into  the  Mille  Lacs  region 

^  Apparently  by  Jonathan  Carver,  in  the  map  accompany- 
ing his  volume  of  Travels, 


240       Essays  in  Western  History 

of  Minnesota.  The  season  was  phenomenally 
severe,  and  the  Indians  could  not  find  game 
enough  to  sustain  life.  A  famine  ensued  in  the 
camp,  the  tragical  details  of  which  are  vividly- 
painted  by  Radisson.  In  the  spring  of  1662, 
the  traders  were  back  again  at  Chequamegon, 
and  built  another  fortified  shelter,  this  time 
possibly  on  the  sand-spit  of  Shagawaumikong,^ 

1  Says  Warren  {Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  v.,  p.  102) :  "  Shag-a- 
waum-ik-ong  is  a  narrow  neck  or  point  of  land  about  four 
miles  long,  and  lying  nearly  parallel  to  the  island  of  La 
Pointe,  toward  the  western  end  of  which  it  converges,  till  the 
distance  from  point  to  point  is  not  more  than  two  miles."  In 
first  entering  the  bay,  the  previous  autumn,  Radisson  describes 
Shagawaumikong,  and  adds  :  "  That  point  should  be  very  fitt 
to  build  &  advantageous  for  the  building  of  a  fort,  as  we  did 
the  spring  following."  But  later  on  in  his  journal,  in  describ- 
ing the  return  to  the  bay  from  their  winter  with  the  Sioux  of 
the  Mille  Lacs,  he  does  not  mention  the  exact  location  of  the 
new  "  fort."  While  here,  they  "  received  [news]  that  the 
Octanaks  [Ottawas]  [had]  built  a  fort  on  the  point  that  forms 
that  Bay,  w^*^  resembles  a  small  lake.  We  went  towards  it 
with  all  speede,"  —  and  had  a  perilous  trip  thither,  across 
thin  ice.  This  would  indicate  that  the  French  camp  was  not 
on  the  point.  As  with  many  other  passages  in  the  journal, 
it  is  impossible  to  reconcile  these  two  statements.  Verwyst 
thinks  that  the  traders  were  stationed  on  Houghton  Point. 

Warren,  who  had  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  Chippewa 
traditions,  believed  that  that  tribe,  driven  westward  by  degrees 
from  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  reached  Lake 
Superior  about  the  time  of  the  Columbian  discovery,  and 
came  to  a  stand  on  Shagawaumikong  Point.  "On  this  spot 
they  remained  not  long,  for  they  were  harassed  daily  by  their 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe         241 

from  which  place  they  once  more  wandered  in 
search  of  adventures  and  peltries,  going  as  far 
northwest  as  Lake  Assiniboin,  and  later  in  the 
season  returning  to  their  home  on  the  Lower 
St.  Lawrence. 

Returning  to  Montreal  in  August  (1660), 
the  well-laden  canoes  of  these  adventurous 
fur-traders  were  accompanied  thither 
ngra  tu  ^^  ^  large  party  of  Hurons  from  the 
Lac  Courte  Oreille  country,  which  lies  just 
over  the  Lake  Superior  watershed  several  days 
to  the  south  of  Chequamegon  Bay.  Radisson 
and  Groseilliers  were  obliged  to  suffer  the  con- 
fiscation of  the  greater  part  of  their  valuable 

warlike  foes,  and  for  greater  security  they  were  obliged  to 
move  their  camp  to  the  adjacent  island  of  Mon-ing-wun-a- 
kauning  ['*  place  of  the  golden-breasted  woodpecker,"  now 
known  as  La  Pointe].  Here,  they  chose  the  site  of  their 
ancient  town,  and  it  covered  a  space  about  three  miles  long 
and  two  broad,  comprising  the  western  end  of  the  island." 
(Minn.  Hist  Colls.,  v.,  p.  96.)  They  remained  in  this  large 
town  "  for  the  space  of  three  generations,  or  one  hundred 
and  twenty  years,"  but  for  various  reasons  evacuated  the 
place,  and  settling  on  the  adjacent  mainland  came  to  regard 
La  Pointe  Island  (now  Madelaine)  as  an  abode  of  evil  spirits, 
upon  which,  it  is  said,  until  the  days  of  Cadotte,  no  Indian 
dare  stay  over  night  alone.  Gradually,  as  the  beaver  grew 
more  scarce,  the  Chippewas  radiated  inland ;  hence  at  the 
time  of  Radisson's  visit,  the  shores  of  the  bay  were  almost 
unoccupied,  save  during  the  best  fishing  season,  when 
Chippewas,  Ottawas,  Hurons,  and  others  congregated  there 
in  considerable  numbers. 

16 


242       Essays  in  Western  History 

peltries,  because  of  trading  in  the  upper  waters 
without  a  license,  and  were  nearly  ruined  by 
this  unfortunate  outcome  of  their  enterprise. 
Such  ungenerous  treatment  of  the  explorers, 
who  had  brought  tidings  of  a  vast  stretch  of 
new  territory,  led  to  their  desertion  to  the 
English  and  the  ultimate  formation  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

While  in  Montreal,  the  Hurons  were  met  by 
Jesuit  missionaries  who  persuaded  them  to 
Father  rcqucst  the  presence  of  a  "  black- 
Menard  gown  "  in  their  far-away  camps  in  the 
Wisconsin  woods.  Father  Pierre  Menard  was 
assigned  to  the  task  by  his  superior,  and 
in  September  returned  with  the  tribesmen, 
accompanied  by  his  servant  and  seven  other 
Frenchmen.  After  a  deplorable  winter  at 
Keweenaw  Bay,  on  the  south  shore  of  Lake 
Superior,  where  he  had  been  abandoned  by 
his  hosts,  Menard  started  overland  to  find 
them.  It  was  a  toilsome  journey  of  some  two 
hundred  miles  to  the  southwest,  partly  by 
water,  but  much  of  it  through  a  tangled  for- 
est. While  making  a  portage  around  Bill 
Cross  Rapids,  in  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Wis- 
consin River,  the  unfortunate  priest  appears 
to  have  lost  the  path  and  perished  of  exposure. 
He  was  never  after  seen  by  his  companion. 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  243 

It  was  not  until  August  of  1665,  four  years 
later,  that  Father  Claude  AUouez,  another 
Father  Jesuit,  was  scnt  to  re-open  the  Lake 
Aiiouez  Superior  mission.  He  chose  his  site 
on  the  southwestern  shore  of  Chequamegon 
Bay,  possibly  at  the  mouth  of  Vanderventer's 
Creek,  doubtless  not  far  from  the  spot  on 
which  Radisson's  hut  had  been  built,  four 
years  previously.  The  mission  and  the  local- 
ity were  called  La  Pointe  dti  Saint  Esprit^ 
which  in  familiar  speech  was  soon  shortened 
to  La  Pointe.^ 

1  Neill  (in  Minjt.  Hist.  Colls.,  v.,  p.  ii6)  is  of  the  opinion 
that  Allouez  "  built  a  bark  chapel  on  the  shores  of  the  bay, 
between  a  village  of  Petun  Hurons  and  a  village  composed 
of  three  bands  of  Ottawas."  That  Allouez  was  stationed 
upon  the  mainland,  where  the  Indians  now  were,  is  evident 
from  his  description  of  the  bay  {Jesuit  Relations  for  1666-67, 
1.,  p.  273)  :  "  It  is  a  beautiful  Bay,  at  the  head  of  which  is 
situated  the  great  Village  of  the  Savages,  who  there  cultivate 
fields  of  Indian  corn  and  lead  a  settled  life.  They  number 
eight  hundred  men  bearing  arms,  but  are  gathered  from 
seven  different  nations,  living  in  peace,  mingled  one  with 
another."  Verwyst,  whose  local  knowledge  is  thorough, 
thinks  that  Aliouez's  mission  was  at  the  mouth  of  Vander- 
venter's Creek,  and  I  have  followed  him  in  this  regard. 

In  christening  his  mission  "  La  Pointe,"  Allouez  had  ref- 
erence, doubtless,  to  the  neighboring  sandy  point  of  Shaga- 
waumikong,  hemming  in  the  bay  on  the  east.  In  this  he 
must  have  had  a  poetic  interest,  for  tradition  told  him  that 
it  was  the  landfall  of  the'  Chippewas,  and  the  place  where, 
perhaps  a  century  before,  had  been  fought  a  great  battle  be- 


244       Essays  in  Western  History 

At  the  time  of  Radisson's  visit,  the  shores 
of  Chequamegon  Bay  were  uninhabited  save 
by  a  few  half-starved  Hurons,  who  came  peri- 
odically to  fish,  from  the  larger  villages  on 
inland  lakes  to  the  south.  But  soon  thereafter 
it  became  the  centre  of  a  considerable  Indian 
population,  residents  of  several  tribes  —  Chip- 
pewas,  Potawatomis,  Kickapoos,  Sauks,  and 
Foxes,  native  to  Wisconsin,  together  with 
Hurons  and  Ottawas  from  the  Huron  coun- 
try —  having  been  attracted  thither :  first,  by 
the  fisheries ;  second,  by  a  fancied  security  in 

tween  them  and  the  Dakotas  (or  Sioux),  relics  of  which 
were  to  be  found  in  our  day,  in  the  human  bones  scattered 
freely  through  the  shifting  soil ;  doubtless  in  his  time,  these 
were  much  in  evidence. 

The  map  in  the  Jesuit  Relations  for  1670-71  (Iv.,  p.  94) 
styles  the  entire  Bayfield  peninsula,  forming  the  west  shore 
of  the  bay,  "  La  Pointe  du  St.  Esprit,"  which  of  course  was 
map-making  from  vague  report.  Franquelin's  map  of  1688, 
more  exact  in  every  particular,  places  a  small  settlement  near 
the  southwestern  extremity  of  the  bay.  See  also  Verwyst's 
Missionary  Labors  of  Fathers  Marquette^  Minard,  and  Alloitez 
(Milwaukee,  1886),  p.  183. 

In  1820,  Cass  and  Schoolcraft  visited  Chequamegon  Bay, 
and  the  latter,  in  his  Narrative,  says :  "  Passing  this  [Bad] 
river,  we  continued  along  the  sandy  formation  to  its  extreme 
termination,  which  separates  the  Bay  of  St.  Charles  [Chequa- 
megon] from  that  remarkable  group  of  islands  called  the 
Twelve  Apostles  by  Carver.  It  is  this  sandy  point  which  is 
called  La  Pointe  Chagoimegon  by  the  old  French  authors,  a 
term  now  shortened  to  La  Pointe." 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  245 

so  isolated  a  region  against  the  Iroquois  of 
the  East  and  the  wild  Sioux  of  the  West. 
When  AUouez  arrived  in  this  polyglot  village, 
the  first  of  October,  he  found  here  Chippewas, 
Potawatomis,  Kickapoos,  Sauks,  and  Foxes, 
all  of  them  Wisconsin  tribes;  besides  these 
were  Hurons,  Ottawas,  Miamis,  and  Illinois  — 
victims  of  Iroquois  hate  who  had  fled  in  droves 
before  the  westward  advances  of  their  merci- 
less tormentors. 

Despite  his  large  congregations,  Allouez 
made  little  headway  among  these  people,  being 
Father  cousoled  for  his  hardships  and  ill- 
Marquette  treatment  by  the  devotion  of  a  mere 
handful  of  followers.  For  four  years  did  he 
labor  alone  in  the  Wisconsin  wilderness,  hop- 
ing against  hope,  varying  the  monotony  of 
his  dreary  task  by  occasional  canoe  voyages 
to  Quebec,  to  report  progress  to  his  father 
superior.  Father  Jacques  Marquette,  a  more 
youthful  zealot,  was  at  last  sent  to  relieve  him, 
and  in  September,  1669,  arrived  at  La  Pointe 
from  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  after  spending  a  full 
month  upon  the  journey  —  so  hampered  was 
he,  at  that  early  season,  by  snow  and  ice. 
Allouez,  thus  relieved  from  a  work  that  had 
doubtless  palled  upon  him,  upon  invitation  of 
the    Potawatomis    proceeded    to    Green    Bay, 


246       Essays  in  Western  History 

where  he  arrived  early  in  December,  and 
founded  the  second  Jesuit  mission  in  Wis- 
consin, St.  Francis  Xavier,  on  the  site  of  the 
modern  town  of  De  Pere.^ 

Marquette  had  succeeded  to  an  uncomfort- 
able berth.  Despite  his  strenuous  efforts  as 
a  peacemaker,  his  dusky  parishioners  soon  un- 
wisely quarrelled  with  their  western  neighbors, 
the  Sioux,^  with  the  result  that  the  La  Pointe 
bands,  and  Marquette  with  them,  retreated 
eastward  along  the  southern  shore  of  the  great 
lake :  the  Ottawas  taking  up  their  home  in  the 
Manitoulin  Islands  of  Lake  Huron,  and  the 
Hurons  accompanying  Marquette  to  the  Island 

1  By  this  time,  fear  of  the  Iroquois  had  subsided  and 
many  Hurons  had  lately  returned  with  the  Potawatomis, 
Sauks,  and  Foxes,  to  the  old  haunts  of  the  latter,  on  Fox 
River.  Cadillac,  writing  in  1703  from  Detroit,  says  {Margry^ 
v.,  p.  317) :  **  It  is  proper  that  you  should  be  informed  that 
more  than  fifty  years  since  [about  1645]  the  Iroquois  by 
force  of  arms  drove  away  nearly  all  of  the  other  Indian 
nations  from  this  region  [Lake  Huron]  to  the  extremity  of 
Lake  Superior,  a  country  north  of  this  post,  and  fright- 
fully barren  and  inhospitable.  About  thirty-two  years  ago 
[1671]  these  exiled  tribes  collected  themselves  together  at 
Michillimakinak." 

*  "  The  cause  of  the  perpetual  war,  carried  on  between 
these  two  nations,  is  this,  that  both  claim,  as  their  exclusive 
hunting-ground,  the  tract  of  country  which  lies  between  them, 
and  uniformly  attack  each  other  when  they  meet  upon  it." — 
Henry's   Travels  and  Adventures  (N.  Y.,  1809),  PP-  I97»  ^^' 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  247 

of  Mackinac,  where  the  Jesuits  had  recently  es- 
tablished the  mission  of  St.  Ignace. 

With  La  Pointe  mission  abandoned,  and  Lake 
Superior  closed  to  French  enterprise  by  the 
"  raging  Sioux,"  the  mission  at  De  Pere  now 
became  the  centre  of  Jesuit  operations  in  Wis- 
consin ;  and  it  was  a  hundred  and  sixty-four 
years  later  (1835)  before  mass  was  again  said 
upon  the  forest-fringed  shores  of  Chequamegon 
Bay. 

Although  the  missionary  had  deserted  La 
Pointe,  the  fur-trader  soon  came  to  be  much  in 
Lords  of  evidence.  The  spirit  of  Radisson  and 
iheftit-  Groseilliers  long  permeated  this  out- 
of-the-way  corner  of  the  Northwest. 
We  find  (1673),  two  years  after  Marquette's 
expulsion,  La  Salle's  trading  agent,  Sieur 
Raudin,  cajoHng  the  now  relentent  Sioux  at 
the  western  end  of  Lake  Superior.  In  the 
summer  of  1679,  that  dashing  coureur  de  bois, 
Daniel  Graysolon  du  Luth,^  ascended  the  St. 
Louis  River,  which  divides  Wisconsin  and  Min- 
nesota, and  penetrated  with  his  lively  crew 
of  voyageurs  to  the  Sandy  Lake  country,  being 
probably  the  first  white  trader  upon  the  head- 
waters of  the  Mississippi.  The  succeeding 
winter  he  spent  in  profitable  commerce  with 

1  From  whom  the  city  of  Duluth,  Minn.,  was  named. 


248       Essays  in  Western  History 

the  Assiniboins,  Crees,  and  other  northern 
tribes  in  the  neighborhood  of  Grand  Portage, 
on  the  present  boundary  between  Minnesota 
and  Canada.  In  June,  probably  unaware  of 
the  easier  portage  by  way  of  the  Mille  Lacs 
and  Rum  River,  Du  Luth  set  out  at  the  head 
of  a  small  company  of  employes  to  reach 
the  Mississippi  by  a  new  route.  Entering 
the  narrow  and  turbulent  Bois  Brule,  half- 
way along  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Superior, 
between  Red  Cliff  and  St.  Louis  River,  he 
with  difficulty  made  his  way  over  the  fallen 
trees  and  beaver  dams  which  then  choked  its 
course.  From  its  headwaters  there  is  a  two- 
mile  portage  to  the  Upper  St.  Croix;  this 
traversed,  Du  Luth  was  upon  a  romantic  stream 
which  swiftly  carried  him,  through  foaming 
rapids  and  deep,  cool  lakes,  down  into  the 
Father  of  Waters.  Here  it  was  that  he  heard 
of  Father  Louis  Hennepin's  captivity  among 
the  Sioux,  and  with  much  address  and  some 
courage  rescued  that  doughty  adventurer,  and 
carried  him,  by  way  of  the  Fox-Wisconsin 
route,  in  safety  to  Mackinac.^ 

An    adventurous   forest   trader,   named   Le 
Sueur,  was  the  next  man  to  imprint  his  name 

1  See  Thwaites's  edition  of  Hennepin's  New  Discovery 
(Chicago  :  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  1903). 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  249 

on  the  page  of  Lake  Superior  history.  The 
Fox  Indians,  who  controlled  the  valleys  of  the 
Fox  and  Wisconsin  rivers,  had  for  various 
reasons  become  so  hostile  to  the  French  that 
those  divergent  streams  were  no  longer  safe 
as  a  gateway  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the 
Great  River.  The  tendency  of  the  prolonged- 
Fox  War  was  to  force  the  fur-trade  travel  to 
the  portages  of  Chicago  and  St.  Josephs  on 
the  south,  and  those  of  Lake  Superior  on  the 
north.i  It  was  with  a  view  to  keeping  open 
the  Bois  Brule-St.  Croix  route,  that  Le  Sueur, 
who  had  been  in  the  West  for  several  years, 
was  despatched  by  the  authorities  of  New 
France  in  1693.  He  built  a  stockaded  fort 
on  Madelaine  Island,  convenient  for  guarding 
the  northern  approach,^  and  another  on  an 
island  in  the  Mississippi,  below  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Croix,  and  near  the  present  town 

1  See  Parkman's  Half-Cmtiiry  of  Cojtfiict,  Hebberd's 
Wisconsin  under  French  Dominion  (Madison,  1890),  and 
Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  xvi.,  xvii. 

2  Neill,  in  Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  v.,  p.  140,  says  that  soon 
after  St.  Lusson's  taking  possession  of  the  Northwest  for 
France,  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  (1671),  French  traders  built  a 
small  fort  set  about  with  cedar  palisades,  on  which  a  cannon 
was  mounted,  "at  the  mouth  of  a  small  creek  or  pond  mid- 
way between  the  present  location  of  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany's establishment  and  the  mission-house  of  the  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions/' 


250       Essays  in  Western  History 

of  Red  Wing,  Minnesota.  The  post  in  the 
Mississippi  soon  became  "  the  centre  of  com- 
merce for  the  Western  parts."  The  station  in 
Chequamegon  Bay  also  soon  rose  to  import- 
ance, for  the  Chippewas,  who  had  drifted  far 
inland  into  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  with  the 
growing  scarcity  of  game,  —  the  natural  result 
of  the  indiscriminate  slaughter  which  the  fur- 
trade  encouraged,  —  were  induced  by  the  new 
trading  facilities  to  return  to  their  old  haunts, 
massing  themselves  in  an  important  village  on 
the  southwestern  shore. 

This  incident  strikingly  illustrates  the  impor- 
tant part  which  the  trader  early  came  to  play 
^,  ,  ^.      in  Indian  life.     At  first,  the  tribesman 

The  Indian 

and  the  was  an  agriculturist  in  a  small  way, 
trader  ^^^  huntcd  and  fished  only  to  meet 
the  daily  necessities  of  food  and  clothing. 
The  white  man,  however,  induced  him  to  kill 
animals  solely  for  their  furs,  luxuries  ever  in 
great  demand  in  the  marts  of  civilization. 
The  savage  now  wholly  devoted  himself  to 
the  chase,  and  it  became  necessary  for  the 
white  man  to  supply  him  with  clothing,  tools, 
weapons,  and  ornaments  of  European  manu- 
facture, —  the  currency,  as  well  as  the  neces- 
sities, of  the  wilderness.^     These  articles  the 

1  Minn.  Hist.  Colls. ^  v.,  p.  125.  Originally,  the  Indians  of 
Lake  Superior  went  to  Quebec  to  trade ;  but,  as  the  whites 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  251 

savage  had  heretofore  laboriously  fashioned 
for  himself  at  great  expenditure  of  time;  but 
now  he  was  not  content  with  native  manu- 
factures, and  indeed  he  quickly  lost  his  old- 
time  facility  for  making  them.  Soon  he  was 
almost  wholly  dependent  on  the  white  trader 
for  the  commonest  conveniences  of  life.  No 
longer  tied  to  his  fields,  he  became  more  and 
more  a  nomad,  roving  restlessly  to  and  fro  in 
search  of  fur-bearing  game,  and  quickly  popu- 
lating or  depopulating  a  district  according  to 
the  conditions  of  trade.  Without  his  trader, 
he  quickly  sank  into  misery  and  despair;  with 
the  advent  of  the  trader,  a  certain  sort  of  pros- 
perity once  more  reigned  in  the  tepee  of  the 
red  man.  In  the  story  of  Chequamegon  Bay, 
the  heroes  are  the  fur-trader  and  the  mission- 
ary: and  of  these  the  fur-trader  is  the  greater, 
for  without  his  presence  on  this  scene  there 
would  have  been  no  Indians  to  convert. 

Although  Le  Sueur  was  not  many  years  in 
command  upon  Chequamegon  Bay,^  we  there- 
penetrated  westward  by  degrees,  these  commercial  visits  were 
restricted  to  Montreal,  Niagara,  Detroit,  Mackinac,  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  as  each  in  turn  became  the  outpost  of  French  in- 
fluence ;  finally,  trading-posts  were  opened  at  La  Pointe,  St. 
Louis  River,  and  Pigeon  River,  and  frequently  traders  even 
followed  the  savages  on  their  long  hunts  after  the  ever- 
decreasing  game. 

1  In  July,   1695,  Chingouabe,   chief   of  the  Chippewas, 


252       Essays  in  Wester 7i  History 

after  catch  frequent  glimpses  of  stockaded  fur- 
Pur^rade  trade  stations  here,  —  French,  English, 
stockades  ^^^j  American,  in  turn,  —  the  most 
of  them  doubtless  being  on  Madelaine  Island, 
which  not  only  commands  the  bay  but  is 
easily  defensible  from  mainland  attacks.^     We 

voyaged  with  Le  Sueur  to  Montreal,  to  "pay  his  respects 
to  Onontio,  in  the  name  of  the  young  warriors  of  Point 
Chagouamigon,  and  to  thank  him  for  having  given  them 
some  Frenchmen  to  dwell  with  them ;  and  to  testify  their 
sorrow  for  one  Jobin,  a  Frenchman  killed  at  a  feast.  It  oc- 
curred accidentally,  not  maliciously."  In  his  reply  (July  29), 
Governor  Frontenac  gave  the  Chippewas  some  good  advice, 
and  said  that  he  would  again  send  Le  Sueur  "  to  command  at 
Chagouamigon."  —  Minn.  Hist.  Colls. ^  v.,  p.  421. 

1  It  is  evident  that  hereafter  Madelaine  Island  was  the 
chief  seat  of  French  power  in  Chequamegon  Bay,  but  it  was 
not  until  the  present  century  that  either  the  name  La  Pointe 
or  Madelaine  was  applied  to  the  island.  Franquelin's  map 
(1688)  calls  it  "  Isle  Detour  ou  St.  Michel."  Bellin's  French 
map  of  Lake  Superior  (in  Charlevoix's  Histoire  et  Descrip- 
Hon  GSnirale  de  Nouvelle  France^  Paris,  1744)  calls  the  long 
sand-point  of  Shagawaumikong,  "  Point  de  Chagauamigon," 
and  styles  the  present  Madelaine  Island,  "  Isle  La  Ronde,'* 
after  the  trader  La  Ronde.  What  is  now  Basswood  Island, 
he  calls  "  Isle  Michel,"  and  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
bay  indicates  that  at  that  place  was  once  an  important  Indian 
village.  In  De  I'lsle's  map  of  1745,  a  French  trading  house 
{Maison  Franfoise)  is  shown  on  Shagawaumikong  Point  it- 
self. Madelaine  Island  has  at  various  times  been  known 
as  Monegoinaiccauning  (or  moningwunakauning,  Chip- 
pewa for  "  golden-breasted  woodpecker "),  St.  Michel,  La 
Ronde,  Woodpecker,  Montreal,  Virginia  (Schoolcraft,  1820), 
Michael's  (McKenney,  1826),  Middle  (because  midway  be- 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  253 

know  that  in  171 7  there  was  a  French  trader 
at  La  Pointe,  —  now  the  popular  name  for 
the  entire  bay  district,  —  for  he  was  asked  by- 
Lieutenant  Robertel  de  la  Nolle,  who  was  then 
at  Kaministiqua,^  to  forward  a  letter  to  a  cer- 
tain Sioux  chief.  In  September  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  Captain  Paul  le  Gardeur  St.  Pierre, 
whose  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Jean  Nicolet, 
Wisconsin's  first  explorer,  was  sent  to  com- 
mand at  Chequamegon,  assisted  by  Ensign 
Linctot,  the  authorities  of  the  lower  country 
having  been  informed  that  the  local  Chippewa 
chief  was,  with  his  fellow-chief  at  Keweenaw, 
going  to  war  with  the  Foxes.  St.  Pierre  was 
at  Chequamegon  for  at  least  a  year,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Linctot,  who  effected  an  impor- 
tant peace  between  the  Chippewas  and  Sioux.^ 
Whether  a  garrisoned  stockade  was  main- 
tained at  Chequamegon  Bay,  from  St.  Pierre's 
time  to  the  close  of  the  French  domination,  it 
is  impossible  to  say ;  but  it  seems  probable,  for 
the  geographical  position  was  one  of  consider- 

tween  the  stations  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  Fort  William,  at 
Pigeon  River),  Cadotte's,  and  La  Pointe  (the  latter,  because 
La  Pointe  village  was  situated  thereon). 

1  On  the  site  of  the  present  Fort  William,   Ont.,  near 
Thunder  Bay. 

2  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  xvi.,  p.  380 ;  Minn.  Hist.  Colls. ^  v.,  pp. 
423-425- 


254       Essays  in  Western  History 

able  importance  in  the  development  of  the  fur- 
trade,  and  the  few  records  extant  mention  the 
fort  as  one  of  long  standing.^ 

In  1730  it  is  recorded  that  a  nugget  of 
copper  was  brought  to  the  post  by  an  Indian, 
A  copper  ^nd  scarch  at  once  made  for  a  mine. 
nugget  Byj-  a  year  later,  the  authorities  of 
New  France  wrote  to  the  home  office  in  Paris 
that,  owing  to  the  superstitions  of  the  In- 
dians, which  led  them  to  conceal  mineral 
wealth  from  the  whites,  no  copper  mine  had 
thus  far  been  found  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Chequamegon  Bay. 

The  commandant  of  Chequamegon  at  this 
time  was  Louis  Denys,  Sieur  de  la  Ronde  — 
Thefirst  like  most  of  his  predecessors,  a  con- 
bark  siderable  trader  in  these  far  Western 

parts,  and  necessarily  a  man  of  enterprise 
and  vigor.  La  Ronde,  who  was  reported  as 
"  knowing  the  savage  languages  better  than 
the  savages,  as  they  themselves  admit,"  ^  was 
for  many  years  the  chief  trader  in  the  Lake 
Superior  country,  his  son  and  partner  being 
Denys  de  la  Ronde.     In  order  to  search  for 

1  It  was  during  this  period  the  only  fur-trading  station  on 
the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  and  was  admirably  situ- 
ated for  protecting  not  only  the  west  end  of  the  lake,  but  the 
Bois  Brule-St.  Croix  trade  route. 

2  Beauharnois  to  the  French  Minister,  Oct.  11,  i73«. 


The  Story  of  La  Pohite         255 

copper  mines,  as  well  as  to  conduct  their  grow- 
ing fur-trade,  they  built  a  bark  of  forty  tons, 
which  was  without  doubt  **  the  first  vessel  on 
the  great  lake,  with  sails  larger  than  an  Indian 
blanket."^  On  account  of  the  great  outlay 
incurred  by  him  in  this  and  other  wilderness 
enterprises,  the  post  of  Chequamegon,  with  its 
trading  monopoly,  had,  according  to  a  de- 
spatch of  that  day,  been  given  to  the  elder  La 
Ronde,  "  as  a  gratuity  to  defray  expenses." 
Other  allusions  to  the  La  Rondes  are  not 
infrequent:  in  1736,^  the  son  is  ordered  to 
investigate  a  report  of  a  copper  mine  at  Iron 
River,  not  far  east  of  the  Bois  Brule ;  in  the 
spring  of  1740,  the  father  is  at  Mackinac,  on 
his  return  to  Chequamegon  from  a  visit  to  the 

1  James  D.  Butler's  "  Early  Shipping  on  Lake  Superior/' 
in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc,  1894,  p.  87.  The  rigging  and  other 
materials  were  taken  in  canoes  from  the  lower  country  to  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  the  vessel  being  built  at  Point  aux  Pins,  on  the 
north  shore,  seven  miles  above  the  Sault.  Butler  shows  that 
Alexander  Henry  was  interested  with  a  mining  company  in 
launching  upon  the  lake  in  May,  177 1,  a  sloop  of  70  tons. 
After  this,  sailing  vessels  were  regularly  employed  upon 
Superior,  in  the  prosecution  of  the  fur-trade  and  copper 
mining.  The  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  "  Speedwell "  was 
upon  the  lake  as  early  as  1789;  the  North  West  Company's 
principal  vessel  was  the  "  Beaver." 

2  In  this  year  there  were  reported  to  be  150  Chippewa 
braves  living  on  Point  Chagouamigon.  —  N.  Y.  Colon, 
Docs.,  ix. 


256       Essays  in  Western  History 

lower  country,  but  being  sick  is  obliged  to  re- 
turn to  Montreal,  where  he  died;  ^  and  in  1744, 
Bellin's  map  gives  to  what  we  now  know  as 
Madelaine,  the  name  "  Isle  de  la  Ronde  "  — 
fair  evidence  that  the  French  post  of  this  period 
was  on  that  island. 

We  hear  nothing  more  of  importance  con- 
cerning Chequamegon  until  about  1756,  when 
Allies  of  Hertel  de  Beaubassin,  the  last  French 
the  French  commandant  there,  was  summoned  to 
Lower  Canada  with  his  Chippewa  allies,  to  do 
battle  against  the  English.''  For  several  years 
past,  wandering  English  fur-traders  had  been 
tampering  with  the  powerful  Chippewas  of  Lake 
Superior,  who  in  consequence  frequently  mal- 
treated their  old  friends,  the  French;^  but 
now  that  the  tribe  were  summoned  for  actual 
fighting  in  the  lower  country,  with  extravagant 
promises  of  presents,  booty,  and  scalps,  they 
with  other  Wisconsin  Indians  eagerly  flocked 

1  Martin  MSS.,  Dominion  Archives,  Ottawa  —  letter  of 
Beauharnois.  For  much  of  the  foregoing  data,  see  Neill's 
"  History  of  the  Ojibways,"  Minn.  Hist.  Colls. y  v. 

^  N.  Y.  Colon.  Docs.,  x.,  p.  424. 

*  Says  Governor  Galissoniere,  in  writing  to  the  colonial 
office  at  Paris,  under  date  of  October,  1748:  **  Voyage urs 
robbed  and  maltreated  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  elsewhere  on 
Lake  Superior  ;  in  fine,  there  appears  to  be  no  security  any- 
where."—iV:  K  Colon.  Docs.,  x.,  p.  182. 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  257 

under  the  French  banner,  and  in  painted 
swarms  appeared  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, with  no  better  result  than  to  embarrass 
the  French  commissariat  and  thus  unwittingly 
aid  the  ambitious  English. 

New  France  was  tottering  to  her  fall.  The 
little  garrison,  on  Madelaine  Island  had,  with 
A  tragic  many  another  like  it,  been  withdrawn 
tale  from  the  frontier  to  help   in  the  de- 

fence of  the  lower  country ;  and  the  Upper 
Lakes,  no  longer  policed  by  the  fur-trade 
monopoly,  were  free  plunder  for  the  unlicensed 
coureurs  de  bois.  Doubtless  such  were  the 
party  who  encamped  upon  the  island  during 
the  autumn  of  1760.  By  the  time  winter 
had  set  in  upon  them,  all  had  left  for  their 
wintering  grounds  in  the  forests  of  the  far 
West  and  Northwest,  save  a  clerk  named 
Joseph,  who  remained  in  charge  of  the  stores 
and  the  local  traffic.  With  him  were  his  little 
family,  —  his  wife,  who  was  from  Montreal,  his 
child,  a  small  boy,  and  a  man-servant,  or  voy- 
ageur.  Traditions  differ  as  to  the  cause  of  the 
servant's  action  —  some  have  it,  a  desire  for 
wholesale  plunder;  others,  detection  in  a  series 
of  petty  thefts,  which  Joseph  threatened  to  re- 
port; others,  an  unrequited  passion  for  Joseph's 
wife.  However  that  may  be,  the  servant  mur- 
17 


258       Essays  in  Western  His  lory 

dered  first  the  clerk,  and  then  the  wife ;  and 
in  a  few  days,  stung  by  the  piteous  cries  of 
the  child,  the  lad  himself.  When  the  spring 
came,  and  the  traders  returned  to  Chequame- 
gon,  they  inquired  for  Joseph  and  his  fam- 
ily ;  but  the  servant's  reply  was  unsatisfactory, 
and  he  finally  confessed  to  his  terrible  deed. 
The  story  goes,  that  in  horror  the  traders  dis- 
mantled the  old  French  fort  as  a  thing  accursed, 
sunk  the  cannon  in  a  neighboring  pool,  and  so 
destroyed  the  palisade  that  to-day  certain  mys- 
terious grassy  mounds  alone  remain  to  testify 
of  the  tragedy.  Carrying  their  prisoner  with 
them  on  their  return  voyage  to  Montreal,  he 
is  said  to  have  escaped  to  the  Hurons,  among 
whom  he  boasted  of  his  deed,  only  to  be  killed 
as  too  cruel  a  companion  even  for  savages.^ 

New  France  having  now  fallen,  an  English 
trader,  Alexander  Henry,  spent  the  winter  of 
Alexander  1 765-66  upon  the  mainland  opposite 
Henry        ^q   island.^       Henry   had    obtained 

1  See  the  several  versions  of  this  tale,  Wis.  Hist.  Colls., 
viii.,  pp.  224  et  seq.,  and  Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  v.,  pp.  141-145, 431, 
432.  Warren  says  that  some  Chippewa  traditions  ascribe 
this  tragedy  to  the  year  1722,  but  the  weight  of  evidence  is 
as  in  the  text  above. 

2  "  My  house,  which  stood  in  the  bay,  was  sheltered  by  an 
island  of  fifteen  miles  in  length,  and  between  which  and  the 
main  the  channel  is  four  miles  broad.  On  the  island  there 
was  formerly  a  French  trading-post,  much  frequented ;  and 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  259 

from  the  English  commandant  at  Mackinac 
the  exclusive  trade  of  Lake  Superior,  and  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  took  into  partnership  Jean 
Baptiste  Cadotte,^  a  thrifty  Frenchman,  who 
for  many  years  thereafter  was  one  of  the  most 
prominent  characters  on  the  Upper  Lakes. 
Henry  and  Cadotte  spent  several  winters  to- 
gether on  Lake  Superior,  but  only  one  upon 
the  shores  of  Chequamegon,  which  Henry 
styles  ''the  metropolis  of  the  Chippeways."  ^ 

The  next  dweller  at  Chequamegon  Bay, 
John  of  whom  we  have  record,  was  John 

Johnston  Johnston,  a  Scotch-Irish  fur-trader  of 
some  education.     Johnston  established  himself 

in  its  neighborhood  a  large  Indian  village."  —  Henry's 
Travels,  p.  199.  Henry  doubtless  means  that  formerly  there 
was  an  Indian  village  on  the  island ;  Warren  says  that  until 
after  the  coming  of  Cadotte  the  island  was  thought  by  the 
natives  to  be  bewitched. 

1  Jean  Baptiste  Cadotte  (formerly  spelled  Cadot)  was  the 
son  of  one  Cadeau,  who  is  said  to  have  come  to  the  North- 
west in  the  train  of  Sieur  de  Saint-Lusson,  who  in  167 1 
took  possession  of  the  region  centring  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 
Jean  Baptiste,  who  was  legally  married  to  a  Chippewa  woman, 
had  two  sons,  Jean  Baptiste  and  Michel,  both  of  whom  were 
extensive  traders  and  in  their  turn  married  Chippewas.  See 
Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  v.,  index. 

2  "  On  my  arrival  at  Chagouenig,  I  found  fifty  lodges  of 
Indians  there.  These  people  were  almost  naked,  their  trade 
having  been  interrupted,  first  by  the  English  invasion  of 
Canada,  and  next  by  Pontiac's  war."  —  Travels,  p.  193. 


26o       Essays  in  Western  History 

on  Madelaine  Island,  not  far  from  the  site  of 
the  old  French  fort.  Some  four  miles  across 
the  water,  on  the  mainland  to  the  west,  near 
where  is  now  the  town  of  Bayfield,  was  a 
Chippewa  village  with  whose  inhabitants  he 
engaged  in  traffic.  Waubojeeg  (White  Fisher), 
a  forest  celebrity  in  his  day,  was  at  this  time 
the  village  chief,  and  possessed  of  a  comely 
daughter  whom  Johnston  soon  sought  and 
obtained  in  marriage.  Taking  her  to  his 
island  home,  Johnston  appears  to  have  lived 
there  for  a  year  or  two  in  friendly  commerce 
with  the  natives,  at  last  retiring  to  his  old 
station  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.^ 

Mention  has  been  made  of  Jean  Baptiste 
Cadotte,  who  was  a  partner  of  Alexander 
The  Henry  in  the  latter's  Lake  Superior 

Cadottes  trade,  soon  after  the  middle  of  the 
century.     After  his  venture  with  Henry,  Ca- 

1  McKenny,  in  History  of  the  Indian  Tribes  (Phila.,  1854), 
i.,  pp.  154,  155,  tells  the  story.  He  speaks  of  Johnston  as 
"  the  accomplished  Irish  gentleman  who  resided  so  many 
years  at  the  Sault  de  Ste.  Marie,  and  who  was  not  better 
known  for  his  intelligence  and  polished  manners  than  for  his 
hospitality."  Johnston  died  (aged  sixty-six)  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  September  22,  1828.  His  widow  became  a  Presby- 
terian, and  built  a  church  of  that  denomination  at  the  Sault. 
Her  daughter  married  Henry  B.  Schoolcraft,  the  historian 
of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Upper  Lakes.  Waubojeeg  died 
at  an  advanced  age,  in  1793. 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  261 

dotte,  whose  wife  was  a  Chippewa,  returned  to 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  from  which  point  he  con- 
ducted an  extensive  trade  through  the  North- 
west. Burdened  with  advancing  years,  Jean 
retired  from  the  traffic  in  1796  and  divided  the 
business  between  his  two  sons,  Jean  Baptiste 
and  Michel. 

About  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury,^ Michel  took  up  his  abode  on  Madelaine 
Island,  and  from  that  time  to  the  present  there 
had  been  a  continuous  settlement  there.  He 
had  been  educated  at  Montreal,  and  marrying 
Equaysayway,  the  daughter  of  White  Crane, 
the  village  chief  of  La  Pointe,^  at  once  became 
a  person  of  much  importance  in  the  Lake  Su- 
perior country.  Upon  the  old  trading  site  at 
the  southwestern  corner  of  the  island,  by  this 
time  commonly  called  La  Pointe,  —  borrowing 
the  name,  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  original  La 
Pointe,  on  the  mainland,  and  it  in  turn  from 
Point   Chequamegon, —  Cadotte    Hved    at   his 

1  Warren  thinks  he  settled  there  about  1792  [Minn.  Hist. 
Colls.,  v.,  p.  Ill),  but  there  is  good  evidence  that  it  was  at  a 
later  date. 

2  "  The  Cranes  claim  the  honor  of  first  having  pitched 
their  wigwam,  and  lighted  the  fire  of  the  Ojibways,  at  Shaug- 
ah-waum-ik-ong,  a  sand  point  or  peninsula  lying  two  miles 
immediately  opposite  the  Island  of  La  Pointe."  —  Warren,  in 
Minn.  Hist.  Colls. ,  v.,  p.  86. 


262       Essays  in  Western  History 

ease  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Here  he 
cultivated  a  "  comfortable  little  farm,"  com- 
manded a  fluctuating  but  often  far-reaching 
fur-trade,  first  as  agent  of  the  North  West  Com- 
pany, and  later  of  Astor's  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, and  reared  a  considerable  family.  His 
sons,  educated,  as  he  had  been,  at  Montreal, 
became  the  heads  of  families  of  Creole  traders, 
interpreters,  and  voyageurs  whom  antiquarians 
now  confidently  seek  when  engaged  in  resur- 
recting the  French  and  Indian  traditions  of 
Lake  Superior.^ 

1  "Kind-hearted  Michel  Cadotte,"  as  Warren  calls  him, 
also  had  a  trading-post  at  Lac  Courtc  Oreille.  Like  the 
other  Wisconsin  Creole  traders,  he  was  in  English  employ 
during  the  War  of  18 12-15,  ^'^"^  engaged  in  the  capture 
of  Mackinac  (1812).  Pie  died  on  the  island,  July  8,  1837. 
aged  seventy-two  years,  and  was  buried  there.  As  with 
most  of  his  kind,  he  made  money  freely  and  spent  it  with 
prodigality,  partly  in  high  living,  but  mainly  in  supporting 
his  many  Indian  relatives;  as  a  consequence,  he  died  poor, 
the  usual  fate  of  men  of  his  type.  —  Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  v., 
p.  449.  Warren  says  {ibid., -p.  11)  the  death  occurred  "in 
1836,"  but  the  tombstone  gives  the  above  date. 

Cass,  Schoolcraft,  and  Uoty  visited  Chequamegon  Bay  in 
1820.  Schoolcraft  says,  in  his  Narrative,  pp.  192,  193:  "  Six 
miles  beyond  the  Mauvaise  is  Point  Che  goi-me-gon,  once 
the  grand  rendezvous  of  the  Chippeway  tribe,  but  now  re- 
duced to  a  few  lodges.  Three  miles  further  west  is  the 
island  of  St.  Michel  (Madelaine),  which  lies  in  the  traverse 
across  Chegoimegon  Bay,  where  M.  Cadotte  has  an  establish- 
ment.    This  was  formerly  an  important  trading-post,  but  is 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe         263 

In  the  year  1818  there  came  to  the  Lake 
Superior  country  two  sturdy,  fairly  educated  ^ 
The  young  men,  natives  of  the  Berkshire 

Warrens  j^jQg  ^f  Massachusetts— Lyman  Mar- 
cus Warren,  and  his  younger  brother,  Truman 
Abraham.  They  were  of  the  purest  New  Eng- 
land stock,  being  Hneally  descended  from 
Richard  Warren,  one  of  the  "  Mayflower " 
company.  Engaging  in  the  fur-trade,  the 
brothers  soon  became  popular  with  the  Chip- 
pewas,  and  in  1821  still  further  intrenched 
themselves  in  the  affections  of  the  tribesmen  by 
marrying  the  two  half-breed  daughters  of  old 
Michel  Cadotte  —  Lyman  taking  unto  himself 
Mary,  while  Charlotte  became  the  wife  of  Tru- 
man. At  first  the  Warrens  worked  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  American  Fur  Company.  But  John 
Jacob  Astor's  lieutenants  were  shrewd  men, 
and  understood  the  art  of  overcoming  com- 
mercial rivals;    Lyman  was  made  by  them  a 

now  dwindled  to  nothing.  There  is  a  dwelling  of  logs, 
stockaded  in  the  usual  manner  of  trading-houses,  besides 
several  outbuildings,  and  some  land  in  cultivation.  We 
here  also  found  several  cows  and  horses,  which  have  been 
transported  with  great  labour." 

1  Alfred  Brunson,  who  visited  Lyman  Warren  at  T.a 
Pointe,  in  1843,  wrote :  '  Mr.  Warren  had  a  large  and  select 
library,  an  unexpected  sight  in  an  Indian  country,  containing 
some  books  that  I  had  never  before  seen."  —  Westerit 
Pioneer  (Cincinnati,  1879),  ii->  P-  163. 


264       Essays  in  Western  History 

partner  in  the  lake  traffic,  and  in  1824  estab- 
lished himself  at  La  Pointe  as  the  company's 
agent  for  the  Lac  Flambeau,  Lac  Court  Oreille, 
and  St.  Croix  departments,  an  arrangement 
which  continued  for  some  fourteen  years.  The 
year  previous,  the  brothers  had  purchased  the 
interests  of  their  father-in-law,  who  now,  much 
reduced  in  means,  retired  to  private  life  after 
forty  years'  prosecution  of  the  forest  trade.^ 

The  brothers  Warren  were  the  last  of  the 
great  La  Pointe  fur-traders.^  Truman  passed 
away  early  in  his  career,  having  expired  in 
1825,  while  upon  a  voyage  between  Mackinac 
and  Detroit.  Lyman  dwelt  at  La  Pointe  until 
1838,  when  his  connection  with  the  American 
Fur  Company  ceased;  he  then  received  an 
appointment  as  United  States  sub-agent  to 
the  Chippewa  reservation  on  Chippewa  River, 
where  he  died  on  the  tenth  of  October,  1847, 
aged  fifty-three  years.^ 

1  Mhin.  Hist.  Colls. y  v.,  pp.  326,  383,  384,  450.  Contempo- 
raneously with  the  settlement  of  the  Warrens  at  La  Pointe, 
Lieutenant  Bayfield  of  the  British  navy  made  (1822-23)  sur- 
veys from  which  he  prepared  the  first  accurate  chart  of  Lake 
Superior;  his  name  is  preserved  in  Bayfield  peninsula, 
county,  and  town. 

2  Borup  had  a  trading-post  on  the  island  in  1846 ;  but  the 
forest  commerce  had  by  this  time  sadly  dwindled. 

*  He  left  six  children,  the  oldest  son  being  William 
Whipple    Warren,  historian  of  the  Chippewa  tribe.    See 


The  Story  of  La  Point e         265 

Lyman  Marcus  Warren  was  a  Presbyterian, 
and,  although  possessed  of  a  Catholic  wife, 
First  Prot-  was  the  first  to  invite  Protestant  mis- 
estant  mis-  sionarics  to  Lake  Superior.  Not  since 
the  days  of  AUoiiez  had  there  been 
an  ordained  minister  at  La  Pointe.  Warren  was 
solicitous  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  Chip- 
pewa friends,  especially  the  young,  who  were 
being  reared  without  religious  instruction,  and 
subject  to  the  demoralizing  influence  of  a  rough 
element  of  white  borderers.  The  Catholic 
Church  was  not  just  then  ready  to  re-enter  the 
long-neglected  field  ;  and  his  predilections  were 
in  favor  of  the  Protestant  faith.  In  1830,  while 
upon  his  annual  summer  trip  to  Mackinac  for 
supplies,  he  secured  the  co-operation  of  Fred- 
erick Ayer,  of  the  Mackinac  mission,  who  re- 
turned with  him  in  his  batteau  as  lay  preacher 
and  school-teacher,  and  opened  at  La  Pointe 
what  was  then  the  only  mission  upon  the 
shores  of  the  great  lake.  In  August  the  fol- 
lowing year,  Warren  brought  out  from  Macki- 
nac Rev.  Sherman  Hall  and  wife,  who  served 
respectively  as  missionary  and  teacher,  and 
Mrs.  John  Campbell,  an  interpreter.^ 

"Williams's  "Memoir  of  William  W.  Warren,"  in  Minn.  Hist. 
Colls.,  V. 

1  See  Davidson's  excellent  "  Missions  on  Chequamegon 
Bay,"  in  Wis.  Hist,  Colls..,  xii.,  to  which  I  am  chiefly  indebted 


266       Essays  in  Western  History 

La  Pointe  was  then  upon  the  site  of  the  old 
French  trading-post  at  the  southwest  corner  of 
Madelaine  Island;  and  there,  on  the  first 
Sunday  afternoon  after  his  arrival,  Mr.  Hall 
preached  "  the  first  sermon  ever  delivered  in 
this  place  by  a  regularly  ordained  Christian 
minister."  The  missionaries  appear  to  have 
been  kindly  received  by  the  Catholic  Creoles, 
several  of  whom  were  now  domiciled  at  La 
Pointe.  The  school  was  patronized  by  most 
of  the  families  upon  the  island,  red  and  white, 
who  had  children  of  proper  age.  By  the  first 
of  September  there  was  an  average  attendance 
of  twenty-five.  Instruction  was  given  almost 
wholly  in  the  English  language,  with  Sunday- 
school  exercises  for  the  children,  and  frequent 
gospel  meetings  for  the  Indian  and  Creole 
adults. 

We  have  seen  that  the  first  La  Pointe  village 
was  at  the  southwestern  extremity  of  the  island. 
This  was  known  as  the  "  Old  Fort "  site,  for 
here  had  been  the  original  Chippewa  village, 
and  later  the  fur-trading  posts  of  the  French  and 
English.      Gradually,  the  old  harbor  became 

for  information  concerning  the  modern  La  Pointe  missions. 
Mr.  Davidson  has  since  given  us,  in  his  Unnamed  Wiscon- 
sin  (Milwaukee,   1895),  ampler  details   of  this  interesting 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  267 

shallow,  because  of  the  shifting  sand,  and  unfit 
for  the  new  and  larger  vessels  which  came  to 
be  used  in  the  fur-trade.  The  American  Fur 
Company  therefore  built  a  **  New  Fort"  a  few 
miles  farther  north,  still  upon  the  west  shore 
of  the  island ;  and  to  this  place,  the  present 
village,  the  name  La  Pointe  came  to  be  trans- 
ferred. Halfway  between  the  '*  Old  Fort "  and 
the  "  New  Fort,"  Mr.  Hall  erected  (probably 
in  1832)  "a  place  of  worship  and  teaching," 
which  came  to  be  the  centre  of  Protestant 
missionary  work  in  Chequamegon  Bay. 

The  Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists 
were  at  that  time,  through  the  American  Home 
A  denomi-  Missionary  Society  and  the  American 
national  Board,  respectively  united  in  the  con- 
conrwersy  ^^^^  ^^  Wisconsin  missions;  it  is, 
therefore,  difficult  for  a  layman  to  understand 
to  which  denomination  the  institution  of  the 
original  Protestant  mission  at  La  Pointe  may 
properly  be  ascribed.  According  to  Neill, 
Warren  was  a  Presbyterian ;  so  also,  nominally, 
were  Ayer  and  Hall,  although  the  last  two  were 
latterly  rated  as  Congregationalists.  David- 
son, a  Congregational  authority,  says:  "The 
first  organization  of  a  Congregational  church 
within  the  present  limits  of  Wisconsin  took 
place  at  La  Pointe  in  August,  1833,  i^^  con- 


268       Essays  in  Western  History 

nection  with  this  mission ;  "  ^  and  certainly  the 
missionaries  who  later  came  to  assist  Hall  were 
of  the  Congregational  faith ;  these  were  Rev. 
Leonard  Hemenway  Wheeler  and  wife,  Rev. 
Woodbridge  L.  James  and  wife,  and  Miss 
Abigail  Spooner.  Their  work  appears  to 
have  been  as  successful  as  such  proselyting 
endeavors  among  our  American  Indians  may 
hope  to  be,  and  no  doubt  did  much  to  stem 
among  the  Wisconsin  Chippewas  the  tide  of 
demoralization  which  upon  the  free  advent 
of  the  whites  overwhelmed  so  many  of  our 
Western  tribes. 

James's  family  did  not  long  remain  at  La 

1  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.^  xiL,  p.  445.  Mr.  Davidson  writes  to 
me  that  in  his  opinion  Ayer  leaned  to  independency,  and  was 
really  a  Congregationalist ;  Hall  is  registered  as  such  in  the 
Congregational  Year  Book  for  1859.  "  As  to  the  La  Pointe 
Odanah  church,"  continues  Mr.  Davidson  in  his  personal 
letter, "  its  early  records  make  no  mention  of  lay  elders  — 
officers  that  are  indispensable  to  Presbyterian  organization. 
In  manner  of  organization  it  was  independent,  rather  than 
strictly  Congregational.  This  could  not  well  be  otherwise, 
with  no  church  nearer  than  the  one  at  Mackinac.  That  was 
Presbyterian,  as  was  its  pastor,  Rev.  William  M.  Ferry. 
The  La  Pointe  church  adopted  articles  of  faith  of  its  own 
choosing,  instead  of  holding  itself  bound  by  the  Westminster 
Confession.  Moreover,  the  church  was  reorganized  after  the 
mission  was  transferred  to  the  Presbyterian  board.  For  this 
action  there  may  have  been  some  special  reason  that  I  know 
nothing  about.  But  it  seems  to  me  a  needless  procedure  if 
the  church  were  Presbyterian  before." 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  269 

Pointe.      Wheeler  was  soon  recognized  as  the 
leading   spirit   there,  although    Hall 
Western       did  useful  service  in  the  field  of  pub- 
^""^  lication,  his  translation   of  the  New 

Testament  into  Chippewa  (completed  in  1836) 
being  among  the  earliest  of  Western  books. 
Ayer  eventually  went  to  Minnesota.  In  May, 
1845,  owing  to  the  migration  of  the  majority 
of  the  La  Pointe  Indians  to  the  new  Odanah 
Reservation,  on  the  mainland  upon  the  banks 
of  Bad  River,  Wheeler  removed  thither  and 
remained  their  civil  as  well  as  spiritual  coun- 
sellor until  October,  1866,  when  he  retired  from 
service,  full  of  years,  and  conscious  of  a  record 
of  noble  deeds  for  the  upHfting  of  the  savage. 
Hall  tarried  at  La  Pointe  until  1853,  when 
he  was  assigned  to  Crow  Wing  Reservation, 
on  the  Mississippi,  thus  ending  the  Protestant 
mission  on  Chequamegon  Bay.  The  new 
church  building,  begun  in  1837  ^^^^^  the  pres- 
ent La  Pointe  landing,  had  fallen  into  sad  decay, 
when,  in  July,  1892,  it  became  the  property  of 
the  Lake  Superior  Congregational  Club,  who 
purpose  to  preserve  it  as  an  historic  treasure, 
considering  it  the  first  church-home  of  their 
denomination  in  Wisconsin. 

Not  far  from  this  interesting  relic  of  Protes- 
tant pioneering  at  venerable   La  Pointe  is  a 


270       Essays  in  Western  History 

rude  structure  dedicated  to  an  older  faith. 
Widely  has  it  been  advertised,  by  poets, 
romancers,  and  tourist  agencies,  as  **  the  iden- 
tical log  structure  built  by  Pere  Marquette  " ; 
while  within  there  hangs  a  picture  which  we 
are  soberly  told  by  the  cicerone  was  "  given 
by  the  Pope  of  that  time  to  Marquette,  for  his 
mission  church  in  the  wilderness."  It  is  strange 
how  this  fancy  was  born ;  stranger  still  that  it 
persists  in  living  when  so  frequently  proved 
false.  It  is  as  well  established  as  any  fact  in 
Western  history  —  by  the  testimony  of  living 
eye-witnesses,  as  well  as  by  indisputable  records 
—  that  upon  July  27,  1835,  five  years  after 
Warren  had  introduced  Ayer  to  Madelaine 
Island,  there  arrived  at  the  hybrid  village  of 
La  Pointe,  with  but  three  dollars  in  his  pocket, 
Father  a  worthy  Austrian  priest.  Father 
Baraga  (afterwards  Bishop)  Frederick  Baraga. 
By  the  side  of  the  Indian  graveyard  at  Middle- 
port,  he  at  once  erected  "  a  log  chapel,  50  x 
20  ft.  and  18  ft.  high,"  and  therein  he  said  mass 
on  the  ninth  of  August,  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  years  after  Marquette  had  been  driven 
from  Chequamegon  Bay  by  the  onslaught  of 
the  Western  Sioux.^      Father  Baraga's  resus- 

1  See  Verwyst's  Missionary  Labors^  pp.   146-149.     This 
chapel  was  built  partly  of  new  logs,  and  partly  of  material 


The  Story  of  La  Poinle  271 

citated  mission  —  still  bearing  the  name  La 
Pointe,  as  had  the  mainland  missions  of  AUoliez 
and  Marquette — throve  apace.  His  "  child- 
like simplicity,"  kindly  heart,  and  self-sacrificing 
labors  in  their  behalf  won  to  him  the  Creoles 
and  the  now  sadly  impoverished  tribesmen; 
and  when,  in  the  winter  of  1836-37,  he  was  in 
Europe  begging  funds  for  the  cause,  his  simple- 
hearted  enthusiasm  met  with  generous  response 
from  the  faithful. 

Returning  to  La  Pointe  in  1837,  he  finished 
the  little  chapel,  built  log-houses  for  his  half- 
starved  parishioners,  and  lavished  attentions 
upon  them.  Says  Father  Verwyst,  himself  an 
experienced  missionary  among  the  Chippewas, 
"  In  fact,  he  gave  them  too  much  altogether  — 
so  to  say  —  spoiled  them  by  excessive  kind- 
ness." Four  years  later,  his  chapel  being  ill- 
built  and  now  too  small,  he  constructed  a  new 
one  at  the  modern  village  of  La  Pointe,  some 
of  the  materials  of  the  first  being  used  in  the 
second.  This  is  the  building,  blessed  by  Father 
Baraga  on  the  second  Sunday  in  August,  1841, 
which  to-day  is  falsely  shown  to  visitors  as  that 
of  Father  Marquette.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  no  part  of  the  ancient  mainland  chapel  of 

from  an  old  building  given  to  Father  Baraga  by  the  American 
Fur  Company. 


272       Essays  in  Western  History 

the  Jesuits  went  Into  its  construction;  as  for 
the  picture,  a  "  Descent  from  the  Cross,"  alleged 
to  have  once  been  in  Marquette's  chapel,  we 
have  the  best  of  testimony  that  it  was  im- 
ported by  Father  Baraga  himself  from  Europe 
in  1 84 1,  he  having  obtained  it  there  the  pre- 
ceding winter,  when  upon  a  second  tour  to 
Rome  to  raise  funds  for  the  new  church.^  This 
remarkable  man,  promoted  later  to  a  mis- 
sionary bishopric,  continued  throughout  his 
life  to  labor  for  the  uplifting  of  the  Indians  of 
the  Lake  Superior  country,  exhibiting  a  self- 
sacrificing  zeal  which  is  rare  in  the  annals  of 
any  church,  and  establishing  a  lasting  reputa- 
tion as  a  student  of  aboriginal  philology.  He 
left  La  Pointe  mission  in  1853,  to  devote  him- 
self to  the  Menominees,  leaving  his  work 
among  the  Chippewas  of  Chequamegon  Bay  to 
be  conducted  by  others.  About  the  year  1877, 
the  town  of  Bayfield,  upon  the  mainland  oppo- 
site, became  the  residence  of  the  Franciscan 
friars  who  were  now  placed  in  charge.     Thus, 

1  See  Wis.  Hist.  Colls. y  xii.,  pp.  445,  446,  note ;  and  Ver- 
wyst's  Missionary  Labors,  pp.  183,  184.  Father  Verwyst  also 
calls  attention  to  certain  vestments  at  La  Pointe,  said  to  be 
those  of  Marquette  :  "  That  is  another  fable  which  we  feel  it 
our  duty  to  explode.  The  vestments  there  were  procured  by 
Bishop  Baraga  and  his  successors ;  not  one  of  them  dates 
from  the  seventeenth  century." 


The  Story  of  La  Pointe  273 

while  the  Protestant  mission,  after  a  relatively 
brief  career  of  prosperity,  has  long  since  been 
removed  to  Odanah,  the  Catholics  to  this  day 
retain  possession  of  their  ancient  field  in  Che- 
quamegon  Bay. 

In  closing,  let  us  briefly  rehearse  the  changes 
in   the   location  of  La   Pointe,  as  a 

location  "*  geographical  term,  and  thus  clear  our 
minds  of  some  misconceptions  into 

which  several  historians  have  fallen. 

1.  As  name-giver,  we  have  Point  Chequam- 
egon  (or  Shagawaumikong).  Originally  a  long 
sand-spit  hemming  in  Chequamegon  Bay  on 
the  east,  it  is  now  an  island.  The  most  con- 
spicuous object  in  the  local  topography,  it 
gave  name  to  the  district;  and  here,  at  the 
time  of  the  Columbian  discovery,  was  the 
Chippewa    stronghold. 

2.  The  mission  of  La  Pointe  du  St.  Esprit, 
founded  by  AUoiiez,  was,  it  seems  well  estab- 
lished on  the  mainland  at  the  southwestern 
corner  of  the  bay,  somewhere  between  the 
present  towns  of  Ashland  and  Washburn,  and 
not  far  from  the  site  of  Radisson's  fort.  The 
poirit  which  suggested  to  AUoiiez  the  name  of 
his  mission  was,  of  course,  the  neighboring 
Point  Chequamegon. 

18 


274       Essays  in  Western  History 

3.  The  entire  region  of  Chequamegon  Bay 
came  soon  to  be  known  as  La  Pointe,  but  early 
within  the  nineteenth  century  the  name  was 
again  localized  by  being  popularly  attached  to 
the  island  which  had  previously  borne  many 
names,  but  which  to-day  is  officially  designated 
**  Madelaine." 

4.  Cadotte's  little  trading  village  on  the 
southwestern  extremity  of  the  island,  on  the 
site  of  the  old  Chippewa  village  and  the  early 
French  forts,  came  soon  especially  to  be  desig- 
nated as  La  Pointe.  Thus  still  further  was 
localized  this  historic  name,  which  first  had 
reference  to  a  picturesque  point  of  land,  then 
to  a  Jesuit  mission  within  sight  of  the  point, 
then  to  the  entire  environs  of  Chequamegon 
Bay,  then  to  an  island  within  the  bay,  and  now 
to  a  village  upon  that  island. 

5.  When  the  American  Fur  Company  estab- 
lished a  new  fort,  a  few  miles  north  of  the  old, 
the  oft-moved  name  La  Pointe  was  transferred 
thereto.  This  northern  village  was  in  popular 
parlance  styled  "  New  Fort "  and  the  now 
almost-deserted  southern  village  "  Old  Fort " ; 
while  the  small  settlement  around  the  Indian 
graveyard  midway,  where  Father  Baraga  built 
his  first  chapel,  was  known  as  **  Middleport." 


VI 

A  DAY  ON   BRADDOCK'S  ROAD 


VI 

A  DAY   ON  BRADDOCK'S   ROAD 

A  BUSY  little  corner  of  the  world  is  the 
Pennsylvania  town  of  Brownsville,  on  the 
Monongahela.  The  lover  of  nature  notes  its 
Browns-  cxistence,  because  beginning  here 
"^^^^^  the  works  of  man   have  caused   the 

river  to  change  its  character.  The  beautiful 
Monongahela,  from  flowing  with  broad  and 
placid  current  between  steep,  wooded  hills, 
deep  dented  with  ravines,  —  a  sore  temptation 
to  adventurous  angler  and  canoeist  and  botan- 
ist, — becomes  henceforth  a  commercial  stream, 
lined  with  noisy,  busy,  grimy,  matter-of-fact 
manufacturing  towns  literally  abutting  one 
upon  the  other,  all  of  the  sixty  miles  down  to 
Pittsburg,  and  fast  defiling  the  once  picturesque 
banks  with  the  grewsome  offal  of  coal  mines 
and  iron  plants. 

To  the  student  of  Western  history,  however, 
Brownsville  is  a  sort  of  shrine,  albeit  a  smoky. 


2y8       Essays  in  Western  History 

dusty  shrine,  with  the  smell  of  lubricators  and 
the  noise  of  hammers,  and  much  talk  there- 
about of  the  glories  of  Mammon.  It  is  the 
Redstone  of  the  eighteenth  century :  the  centre 
of  the  first  English  settlement  west  of  the 
Alleghanies,  prominent  in  the  annals  of  the 
French-English  struggle  for  the  mastery  of 
the  Ohio,  and  long  the  point  of  departure  for 
expeditions  down  that  river.  It  was,  too,  the 
terminus  of  one  of  two  great  pioneering  paths 
across  the  Alleghanies,  the  other  being  Boone's 
trail  through  Cumberland  Gap. 

Doubtless  the  comparative  ease  by  which 
the  Alleghanies  can  be  crossed,  between  the 
waters  of  the  Potomac  at  Cumberland  (**  Will's 
Creek,"  of  frontier  history),  and  those  of  the 
Redstone  Monongahela  at  the  junction  of  Red- 
oid  Fort  stone  Creek,  was  appreciated  by  the 
aborigines  centuries  ago :  for  extensive  earth- 
work fortifications  of  the  mound-building 
epoch  were  found  by  English  settlers  upon  the 
riverside  hill  within  the  present  city  limits  of 
Brownsville,  these  giving  to  the  region  its  his- 
toric name,  "  Redstone  Old  Fort."  It  is  pre- 
sumable, also,  that  the  Indians  had  had,  for  a 
long  period,  a  well-defined  trail  between  Will's 
Creek  and  Redstone. 

In  1749,  the  Ohio  Company  was  chartered  by 


Braddock's  Road  2jc) 

the  English  crown  for  fur-trading  in  the  Ohio 

valley,  and  built  a  fort  and  storehouse  at  Will's 

Creek.     Nemacolin,  a  Delaware    In- 

Nema- 

coiin's  dian,  whose  village  was  at  Redstone, 
^"^^^  was  employed  to  show  the  company's 

agent,  Christopher  Gist,  the  native  route  over 
the  mountains ;  and  it  was  "  Nemacolin's  Path  " 
that  was  in  great  part  followed  by  young 
Major  Washington  in  1753  in  his  visit  to  the 
French  at  Venango,  that  was  improved  for 
wagon  traffic  by  Washington  on  his  Fort  Ne- 
cessity campaign  the  following  year,  and  that 
was  followed  much  of  the  way  by  Braddock  in 
1755.  For  sixty-five  years  "  Nemacolin's  Path  " 
—  later  developed  into  *'  Braddock's  Road  "  — 
was  travelled  as  the  great  northern  highway  to 
the  West,  until  the  present  National  Road  was 
built  (1795  till  about  1820)  between  Cumber- 
land and  Brownsville.  This  latter  closely  and 
often  actually  follows  the  Braddock  route  from 
Cumberland  until  near  Uniontown,  whence  it 
diverges  westward  to  Brownsville  —  practically 
along  the  old  Indian  trail,  leaving  the  Braddock 
Road  to  verge  northeastward  to  Gist's  planta- 
tion at  Mount  Braddock,  and  thence  westward 
to  the  mouth  of  Turtle  Creek,  where  is  now  the 
modern  iron-making  town  of  Braddock. 

It  was  with  the  view  of  visiting  the  scenes  of 


28o       Essays  in  Western  History 

Washington's  service  along  Nemacolin's  Path, 
a  century  and  a  half  ago,  that  we  set  out  from 
Redstone  Brownsvillc,  One  morning  early  in 
Creek  May.     The  railway  journey  of  some 

eighteen  miles  to  Uniontown  abounds  in  inter- 
est. The  line  makes  its  ascent  to  the  foot  of 
the  Laurel  Hills,  up  the  rugged  little  valley  of 
Redstone  Creek,  hugging  the  serpentine  banks 
with  a  persistence  resulting  in  sharp  curves 
which  bounce  the  traveller  about  in  his  seat  to  a 
degree  more  hvely  than  agreeable.  There  is  a 
strange  mixture  upon  the  Redstone  —  dreary 
little  coal-mine  towns,  with  hillocks  of  shale 
sprawling  over  the  landscape,  and  red-bedaubed, 
unhomelike  homes  of  operatives;  banks  of 
coke  ovens,  hideously  lurid ;  soft  brown  fields, 
pricked  with  springing  grain ;  stretches  of 
rectangular  market-gardens;  and  pretty  farm- 
steads, half  hid  in  apple  orchards,  closely  nes- 
tled by  hillside  shafts.  Between  jerks,  you 
get  charming  vistas  from  the  car-windows  — 
of  the  swift  Httle  mountain  stream  flowing  with 
alternating  noisy  cascades  and  placid  pools  be- 
tween banks  in  which  are  outcroppings  of  the 
reddish  stone  which  gives  name  to  the  locality ; 
of  grassy  slopes,  spangled  with  trillium,  violets, 
and  dandelions;  of  forest  trees  rustling  into 
leaf;  of  the  quaint  log  cabins  of  the  pioneers, 


Braddock's  Road  281 

now  falling  into  decay;  and  of  picturesque 
side  ravines  where  disused,  dilapidated  water- 
wheels  serve  as  relics  of  the  crude  milling  in- 
dustries of  generations  gone  before. 

At  Uniontown,  a  smart,  well-built  little  town 
of  some  eight  thousand  inhabitants,  dependent 
yy^^  chiefly   on   the    coking  industry,  we 

National  took  Carriage  for  Fort  Necessity,  ten 
^""""^  miles  distant  to  the  southeast,  on  the 

National  Road  —  locally  styled  "  the  pike." 
White,  dusty,  and  rather  stony,  the  old  high- 
way leads  straight  over  the  foot-hills  through 
the  pleasant  rustic  suburb  of  Hopwood,  and 
soon  begins  its  zigzag  climb  over  the  Laurel 
Hills.  The  road  is  often  carved  out  of  the  side 
of  a  rugged  slope,  and  then  we  have  below  us 
sharp  descents,  heavily  forested  with  chestnuts, 
maples,  oaks,  and  lindens,  already  well  in  leaf. 
Great  grapevines  hang  from  the  topmost 
boughs  in  rich  festoons ;  masses  of  ferns  and  the 
glossy  may-apple  are  luxuriating  in  the  moist 
depths ;  flowering  dogwoods  lift  their  clusters 
of  white  bloom  into  gay  relief  on  opposite  hill 
slopes ;  shining  masses  of  the  great  laurel  give 
an  air  of  luxuriance  to  the  crests  of  road- 
side banks,  and  everywhere  are  flitting  butter- 
flies panoplied  in  rainbow  tints,  rejoicing  in 
the    scents   and   splendors    of  early   summer. 


282       Essays  in  Western  History 

We  have  also  backward  views  of  the  rolling 
country  from  which  we  have  risen,  of  the  hills 
scattered  about  us  like  haycocks,  their  sunny 
sides  checkered  with  rectangular  fields  of  yel- 
low, brown,  and  gray,  and  of  whitewashed 
hamlets  dotting  the  green  depths. 

At  the  summit  of  the  range,  where  a  by-road, 
to  be  followed  later  in  the  day,  leads  off  north- 
ward to  Jumonville's  Camp  and  Washington's 
Springs,  an  enterprising  farm-wife  conducts  a 
summer  resort,  with  cottages  for  guests  who 
may,  during  the  stifling  summer  days  yet  to 
come,  desire  to  be  up  in  the  air,  out  of  the 
dust  of  the  coke  ovens.  A  tall,  angular,  harsh- 
visaged  woman,  in  a  blue  sunbonnet  and  with 
sockless  feet,  stood  leaning  over  a  stile  hard  by, 
her  eyes  more  intent  on  our  approach  than  on 
the  far-stretching  mountain  view. 

"  We  fit  fire  last  night,  on  Ches'nut  Ridge, 
jest  over  yon,"  she  volunteered,  pointing  with 
her  thumb  to  the  north,  where  a  thin  bank  of 
smoke  hung  dreamily  over  the  dark  forest 
which  here  mantles  the  hills.  She  had  no 
knowledge  of  Fort  Necessity  by  that  name, 
but  "  'lowed  as  thar  was  an  ol*  fort  over  on 
Facenbaker's  farm,  yon  way,  up  the  pike." 
As  to  how  far  it  was,  as  expressed  in  miles,  she 
"  'lowed  she  could  n't  tell,   but   it  was   a  bit 


Braddock's  Road  283 

furder  — yon  way  furder,  now";  and  the  peak 
of  her  sunbonnet  flapped  in  the  direction  of 
the  southeast,  where  the  white  line  of  turnpike 
dipped  down  into  a  little  valley  and  ran  up  over 
the  next  hill,  and  then  appeared  to  jump  off 
into  space. 

When  we  had  climbed  thither,  there  was  a 
dreary  little  frame  tavern  on  the  top  of  the  hill, 
with  a  lager-beer  sign  conspicuously  posted,  a 
watering  trough,  and  a  half-dozen  farm  hands 
sousing  their  heads  at  the  tavern  pump,  pre- 
paratory to  dinner.  The  aspect  was  not  invit- 
ing. In  further  search  of  dinner,  we  descended 
into  the  next  valley,  where  an  old  stone  hos- 
telry stood  by  a  shallow  run  in  which  hogs 
wallowed,  and  waddling  geese  craned  their 
necks  and  hissed  defiance  to  the  new  guests. 
The  generous  hall  and  dining-room,  with  their 
large  open  fireplaces  and  the  commodious  gal- 
leries, are  eloquent  of  the  old  coaching  days 
of  the  '20's  and  '30's,  when  the  National  Road 
from  Cumberland  to  Redstone  was  the  great 
trans-mountain  highway,  over  which  rolled  a 
motley  throng  of  immigrants,  tourists,  traders, 
and  speculators,  on  foot,  on  horseback,  and  in 
every  imaginable  conveyance,  bound  for  the 
unfolding  West. 

This   old    stone   pile,   built   in    1820,  when 


284       Essays  in  Western  History 

the  Westering  tide  was  at  its  flood,  was  one 
of  several  established  along  the  way,  every 
A  coaching  twenty  miles  or  so  apart  —  veritable 
taverjt  coaching  taverns,  at  which  man  and 
beast  in  this  restless  stream  might  obtain  re- 
freshment, solid  and  liquid.  But  few  of  these 
coaching  houses  now  remain ;  there  is  one  six 
miles  east  of  Brownsville,  another  in  Uniontown, 
and  this  one  at  Braddock's  Run.  No  more 
are  they  the  scenes  of  nightly  uproar  —  the 
crack  of  drivers'  whips,  the  shouts  and  impre- 
cations of  a  rushing  throng  eager  to  reach  the 
Western  goal ;  to-day  they  are  peaceful  spots 
much  affected  by  summer  boarders  from  Pitts- 
burg and  Uniontown,  and  existing  but  in  the 
shadow  of  their  old-time  glory. 

Upon  the  banks  of  this  noisy  little  run,  now  a 
muddy  barnyard  rivulet,  the  famous  Braddock 
Where  ^^  ^^^^  ^°  havc  died  and  been  interred. 
Braddock  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
^^  general  was  mortally  wounded  in  the 

slaughter-pen  at  the  mouth  of  Turtle  Creek, 
that  fateful  ninth  of  July,  but  was  borne  by  his 
soldiers  upon  the  retreat,  and  on  the  fourteenth 
died  in  camp.  In  the  journal  of  Colonel  James 
Burd,  sent  out  through  this  district  by  Bouquet 
in  1759,  to  establish  a  base  of  supplies  for  the 
defence    of  the  frontier,  it  is  said  that  "  two 


Braddock's  Road  285 

miles  from  here  [Fort  Necessity]  we  found 
General  Braddock's  grave,  about  twenty  yards 
from  a  little  hollow,  in  which  there  is  a  small 
stream  of  water,  and  over  it  a  bridge."  This 
locality  answers  fully  to  Burd's  description,  and 
just  up  there  on  the  hillside,  —  now  an  open 
pasture,  a  few  yards  north  of  the  present  Na- 
tional Road,  and  immediately  within  the  plainly 
marked  Braddock  Road,  which  here  crosses  the 
former,  —  is  a  clump  of  tall  evergreens,  sur- 
rounded by  a  whitewashed  board  fence,  which 
tradition  establishes  as  the  site  of  Braddock's 
burial.  The  evidence,  I  think,  is  acceptable, 
that  Braddock  was  buried  at  about  this  spot, 
although  the  measures  taken  by  his  soldiers 
to  obliterate  the  grave  against  possible  Indian 
desecration  were  so  thorough  that  the  precise 
locality  can  never  be  known. 

It  quickens  one's  historical  imagination  to 
stand  by  Braddock's  resting-place,  able  with 
the  eye  to  trace  plainly  through  the  hollow 
and  up  over  the  wooded  hill  to  the  west  the 
path  which  the  English  engineers  hewed  out 
for  the  intrepid  general.  Brave  and  well-mean- 
ing he  certainly  was,  and  not  so  bad  a  man  as 
many  have  pictured,  else  Washington  would 
never  have  loved  him  and  mourned  his  loss. 
Braddock  was  but  the  victim  of  the  traditions 


286       Essays  in  Western  History 

of  his  school ;  and  that  these  have  lasted  unto 
our  own  day,  the  Boer  War  affords  ample 
evidence. 

Two  miles  to  the  southeast,  along  the  turn- 
pike, which  follows  the  crest  of  a  low-lying 
Great  spur  dipping  towards  the  Youghio- 

Meadows  gheny  (pronounced  Yoch!-i'0-ga-ney')^ 
is  Geoffrey  Facenbaker's  farm,  which  includes 
Great  Meadows  and  Fort  Necessity.  Descend- 
ing through  a  fenced  cattle-way  for  three  hun- 
dred yards,  one  emerges  upon  the  meadow, 
a  low,  almost  marshy  tract  of  some  fifty  acres, 
surrounded  by  low,  gently-sloping  hills  which 
once  were  heavily  forested,  but  now  are  for  the 
most  part  open  fields.  A  small  creek  flowing 
southeasterly  towards  the  Youghiogheny,  and 
styled  East  Meadow  Run,  courses  through  the 
centre  of  the  valley,  and  on  its  northern  bank 
Washington  built  his  fort. 

The  first  English  fur-traders,  in  their  journey 
along  Nemacolin's  Path,  found  here  a  springy, 
treeless  basin  much  grown  to  bushes,  but 
abounding  in  sweet  grasses.  They  called  it 
Great  Meadows,  in  contradistinction  to  Little 
Meadows,  a  similar  basin  thirty-one  miles  to 
the  east,  and  but  twenty  from  Cumberland. 
In  these  meadows.  Great  and  Little,  they  were 
accustomed  in  over-mountain  trips  to  pasturing 


Braddock's  Road 


288       Essays  in  Western  History 

their  horses  and  cattle,  and  Washington  also 
found  them  serviceable  in  this  regard,  in  his 
expedition  of  1754.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  on  his  way  to  support  the  Virginian  occu- 
pation of  the  Forks  of  the  Ohio  (Pittsburg), 
he  made  the  Great  Meadows  a  base  of  opera- 
tions, although  his  recognition  of  its  unfitness 
for  the  purpose  was  recognized  in  the  name  he 
gave  to  his  stockade. 

The  French  had  driven  off  the  English 
fort-makers  at  Pittsburg,  before  Washington's 
The  first  arrival.  Jumonville,  sent  out  by  way 
^^°*  of  Redstone  to  watch  the  Virginians, 

hid  in  an  obscure  ravine  a  half-dozen  miles  to 
the  northwest,  and  five  hundred  yards  east  of 
Nemacolin's  Path,  at  the  base  of  a  lofty  hill 
from  which  he  had  a  wide  view  of  the  country. 
Washington,  with  his  advance  party,  here  came 
upon  Jumonville,  and  the  encounter  which 
ensued  led  to  the  death  of  the  latter  and  the 
opening  of  the  French  and  Indian  War. 

Washington,  too  weak  to  meet  the  avenging 
French  force  from  Fort  Duquesne,  under 
Jumonville's  brother,  De  Villiers,  who 
Fort  had    ascended   the    Monongahela   in 

Necessity  ^Q^ts  and  was  rapidly  approaching 
up  the  valley  of  the  Redstone,  fell  back  to  Fort 
Necessity,   strengthened  it  as  best  he  might, 


B ruddock's  Road  289 

and  there  stood  siege  with  his  half-starved 
band  through  that  dreary  third  of  July.  In 
a  rude  stockade  surrounded  on  three  sides  by 
hills,  one  of  them  so  close  that  the  enemy 
could  approach  within  sixty  yards  under  cover 
of  the  woods,  and  with  the  besieged  crippled 
for  lack  of  stores,  the  result  was  inevitable. 
The  "  buckskin  general "  was  obliged  to  capit- 
ulate, and  at  daybreak  of  the  fourth  marched 
out  over  Nemacolin's  Path  towards  Will's  Creek, 
a  toilsome  journey  of  fifty  miles  across  the 
mountains,  upon  a  mere  apology  for  a  road, 
the  heart-sick  officers  and  men  bearing  their 
burdens  on  their  backs,  and  their  wounded  on 
stretchers.  They  were  suffered  to  carry  one 
swivel  with  them,  for  defence  against  the 
Indians  who  hung  upon  their  flanks,  and  to 
spike  the  eight  left  behind  them  in  the  fort. 
The  injury  inflicted  upon  these  latter  was  ap- 
parently but  nominal,  for  the  following  year 
several  of  the  guns  were  taken  to  Fort 
Cumberland.  Years  after  this,  emigrants  to 
the  West,  following  the  old  over-mountain 
route,  discovered  and  used  others  at  Great 
Meadows,  and  eventually  these  found  their 
way  into  Kentucky,  where  they  did  service  in 
the  defence  of  savage-harassed  settlers  on  the 

*'  dark  and  bloody  ground." 
19 


290       Essays  in  Western  History 

It  was  surprising  to  find  the  remains  of 
Fort  Necessity  so  well  preserved.  Great 
Remains  of  Meadow  Run,  Originally  a  lazy,  weed- 
thefort  grown  Stream  some  ten  feet  wide, 
has  been  straightened  by  the  present  proprie- 
tor into  a  drainage  ditch,  but  its  ancient 
windings  are  readily  distinguishable.  The 
change  in  the  course  of  the  run  destroyed  an 
outlying  work,  but  the  embankment  of  the 
fort  itself  is  traceable  through  the  greater  part 
of  its  length.  The  line  of  earthwork  is  still 
some  eight  or  ten  inches  above  the  surround- 
ing level ;  while  on  the  inner  side,  counting  the 
excavation  ditch,  it  has  a  height  of  about 
fifteen  inches. 

The  accounts  of  visitors  to  the  fort  differ 
materially  as  to  its  shape.  In  his  Journal  of 
1759,  Colonel  Burd  says,  under  date  of  Sep- 
tember 10:  "  Saw  Colonel  Washington's  fort, 
which  was  called  Fort  Necessity.  It  is  a  small, 
circular  stockade,  with  a  small  house  in  the 
centre."  In  18 16  Freeman  Lewis  made  a  sur- 
vey, and  declared  that  the  embankments  were 
then  nearly  three  feet  high,  and  had  the  shape 
of  an  obtuse-angled  triangle  of  one  hundred 
and  five  degrees,  with  the  base  of  two  hundred 
and  seventy- two  feet  on  the  stream  (then  un- 
changed   in   its   course),   and    the  sides   one 


Braddock's  Road  291 

hundred  and  fifteen  and  ninety-nine  feet 
respectively.  Sparks  visited  the  place  in  1830, 
and  tells  us  that  it  occupied  "■  an  irregular 
square,  the  dimensions  of  which  were  about 
one  hundred  feet  on  each  side,"  and  his  en- 
graving gives  it  a  diamond  shape.  The  author 
of  the  History  of  Fayette  Cotmty  (1822)  thinks 
the  outlines  are  those  of  a  right-angled  tri- 
angle. I  cannot  agree  with  any  of  these,  for 
our  measurements  with  compass  and  line  gave 
us  an  equilateral  triangle  with  sides  of  about 
a  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  Of  the  side 
nearest  the  run  (from  northwest  to  southeast) 
seventy  feet  are  now  distinguishable ;  upon  that 
extending  from  the  still  perfect  northwest  cor- 
ner towards  the  southern  angle  there  remains 
the  upper  portion,  a  hundred  and  ten  feet  in 
length ;  the  third  side  is  broken  at  both  ends, 
owing  to  the  utter  destruction  of  the  southern 
and  southeastern  angles,  but  has  ninety  feet 
left  in  the  curtain.  There  are  of  course  no 
remaining  evidences  of  the  palisade,  on  top 
of  the  embankment,  for  this  was  at  the  time 
destroyed  by  the  French,  and  all  relics  have 
long  since  been  gathered  up  by  curiosity- 
seekers. 

Two    hawthorn-trees    are    growing    on   the 
western  embankment,  one  of  them  fifty-four 


292       Essays  in  Western  History 

inches  in  circumference ;  and  Mr.  Facenbaker 
reports  that  some  forty  years  ago,  on  coming 
into  the  property,  he  eradicated  a  young 
locust  grove  then  occupying  the  site  of  the  fort. 
In  the  centre  of  the  fort  still  rests,  although 
upheaved  by  frost,  a  hewn  block  of  limestone, 
two  feet  square,  the  only  surviving  memento 
of  a  movement  inaugurated  in  1854  —  the 
centennial  year  —  for  the  erection  here  of  a 
Washington  monument.  This  corner-stone 
was  laid  with  much  ceremonial  by  Fayette 
Lodge,  A.  Y.  M.,  the  Fourth  of  July  of  that 
year;  but  nothing  has  since  been  done  about 
the  matter,  and  the  outlines  of  the  fort  alone 
remain  as  visual  evidence  of  the  momentous 
affair  of  the  Great  Meadows.  Washington 
himself  was  conscious  of  the  historic  import- 
ance of  the  spot,  and  did  his  best  to  protect 
it  from  change.  In  i  ^6^  he  acquired  claim  to 
two  hundred  and  thirty-four  acres  hereabout, 
including  the  meadow,  and  mentions  the  tract 
in  his  will.  Sold  by  his  executors,  the  site  of 
Fort  Necessity  passed  through  several  hands, 
but  has  been  untouched  by  the  plough  unto  this 
day ;  although  thousands  of  crayfish,  piling  up 
little  mounds  of  clay,  are  just  now  doing  their 
best  to  disturb  the  surface. 

Leaving   Great   Meadows,  with   its  sloping 


Braddock's  Road  293 

brown  sides  being  ploughed  and  harrowed  for 
field  crops,  we  ascended  to  the  turnpike  once 
Jumon-  niore,  through  the  cattle-way,  and 
viiie's  an  hour  later  were  back  at  Summit 

Camp  House,  turning  ofif  to  the  northeast  on 

the  by-road  towards  Jumonville's  Camp.  It  is 
the  roughest  sort  of  mountain  road,  the  hubs 
of  the  carriage  one  moment  bumping  trees  and 
stumps,  and  the  other  wallowing  in  deep  ruts 
which  are  still  filled  with  the  residuum  of  yes- 
terday's rain.  Up  and  down  steep  grades, 
swishing  around  sharp  curves,  rattling  over 
stony  hillsides,  toiling  laboriously  through 
alternate  beds  of  sand  and  clay,  we  reach  an 
understanding  of  what  Braddock's  Road  must 
have  been  before  the  turnpike  came.  In  three 
miles  we  pass  Washington's  Springs,  a  roman- 
tic glen  where  the  Virginia  major  is  supposed 
to  have  camped  the  night  before  he  met  Ju- 
monville.  There  is,  in  this  isolated  spot,  a 
small  summer  hotel  with  an  outlying  cottage 
or  two.  As  we  passed,  a  tall  mountaineer  and 
his  women-folk  were  busied  in  whitewashing 
and  repapering  the  establishment  in  prepara- 
tion for  the  **  season,"  soon  to  open. 

A  half  mile  or  so  farther,  we  found  the  rocky 
hillside  hollow  in  which  Jumonville  made  his 
camp,  and  where  was  fired  the  first  shot  in  the 


294       Essays  in  Western  History 

final  struggle  between  French  and  English  for 
the  control  of  the  continent.  The  sides  are 
now  hung  thick  with  laurel,  and  great  beds  of 
ferns  carpet  the  ground ;  while  all  about,  the 
dark  mountain  forest  is  perhaps  quite  as 
tangled  and  dreary  as  it  was  in  Washington's 
day.  Towering  aloft,  a  steep  climb,  is  the  hill 
which  was  Jumonville's  outlook  over  Nema- 
colin's  Path,  and  from  which  he  could,  himself 
unseen,  readily  observe  the  movements  of  the 
Virginians.  Not  far  away,  on  the  bank  of  the 
outlet  of  this  spring,  and  at  the  foot  of  a  huge 
boulder,  is  the  spot  styled  Jumonville's  Grave, 
although  there  is  less  evidence  that  here  was 
the  actual  grave  than  there  is  concerning  the 
identity  of  Braddock's  resting-place. 

A  half  mile  to  the  north  was,  the  following 
year,  the  camp  of  Colonel  Dunbar,  in  charge 
Dunbar's  of  Braddock's  heavy  reserves.  It  was 
Camp  |-Q  Dunbar's  camp  that  the  survivors 

of  the  ambuscade  at  Turtle  Creek  fled  in  terror ; 
and  from  here  commenced  that  shameful  retreat 
at  a  time  when  the  victorious  but  apprehensive 
French  and  Indians  were  themselves  in  flight 
towards  Fort  Duquesne.  Dunbar's  Spring,  in 
which  Braddock's  great  stores  of  powder  were 
spoiled,  is  still  pointed  out  to  strangers,  and 
the  story  is  told  that  twelve  years  after  Brad- 


f  OF  THE  X 

BraddocKs  Road  295 

dock's  defeat  there  were  still  visible  "  some  six 
inches  of  black  nitrous  matter  all  over  the  basin 
of  the  spring  "  —  the  residuum  of  the  English 
powder  so  freely  poured  into  it. 

Upon  a  lofty  elevation  near  Dunbar's  camp, 
with  its  stirring  memories  of  border  warfare, 
The  mean-  ^ud  a  half-dozcu  milcs  east  of  Union- 
ingofit  town,  is  one  of  the  admirable  soldiers* 
orphans'  schools,  of  which  there  are  several 
in  Pennsylvania.  Just  as  the  sun  was  sinking, 
we  emerged  from  the  rough  forest  road  which 
passes  the  eastern  gate  of  the  institution, 
and  drove  through  the  grounds  as  a  cut-short 
to  the  Uniontown  ''  pike."  The  smartly-uni- 
formed school-lads  were  drawn  up  in  platoons 
on  the  parade-ground,  saluting  the  flag  of  the 
country  for  which  Washington,  less  than  a  mile 
distant,  virtually  fired  the  first  shot,  a  century 
and  a  half  ago.  That  for  which  Washington 
stood,  at  Jumonville's  hiding-place,  was  the 
guarantee  to  all  white  dwellers  in  North 
America  of  the  perpetuity  of  free  English 
institutions,  as  against  the  mediaeval  despotism 
of  the  French  dominion ;  the  fathers  of  these 
homeless  boys  extended  the  benefits  of  those 
institutions  to  the  blacks  within  our  borders, 
thus  completing  the  task  so  well  begun. 


VII 

EARLY    LEAD    MINING    ON    THE    UPPER 
MISSISSIPPI 


VII 

EARLY    LEAD    MINING   ON  THE  UPPER 
MISSISSIPPI! 

IT  is  not  probable  that  the  aboriginal  inhabit- 
ants of  the  Upper  Mississippi  valley,  aside 
from  using  it  to  ornament  their  pipes  and  other 
utensils,  made    any  considerable   use    of  lead 
.....   previous   to    the   appearance  among 

Aboriginal    ^  ^^  ^ 

use  of  them  of  French  missionaries,  ex- 
plorers, and  fur-traders.  The  French 
continually  searched  for  metallic  deposits,  and 
questioned  the  Indians  closely  regarding  their 
probable  whereabouts.  Although  superstitious 
with  regard  to  minerals,  the  latter  appear  to 
have  early  made  known  to  the  whites  the  veins 
of  lead  in  the  tract  which  now  embraces  the 

1  Not  a  formal  treatise  upon  this  interesting  subject.  I 
have  here  but  thrown  together  in  outline,  as  useful  material 
for  those  who  may  wish  to  develop  it,  these  notes  on  early 
lead  mining  in  the  Fever  (or  Galena)  River  region,  the  result 
of  a  somewhat  protracted  investigation,  which,  however,  I 
have  not  had  the  opportunity  to  carry  to  its  utmost 
possibilities. 


300       Essays  in  Western  History 

counties  of  Grant,  Iowa,  and  La  Fayette,  in 
Wisconsin;  Jo  Daviess  and  Carroll  counties 
in  Illinois;  Dubuque  County,  in  Iowa,  and 
portions  of  Eastern  Missouri.  This  is  one  of 
the  richest  of  lead-bearing  regions,  and  when 
once  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  explorers 
of  New  France  its  fame  became  widespread. 
The  French  introduced  fire-arms  among  the 
Northwestern  Indians,  and  induced  them  to 
hunt,  on  a  large  scale,  fur-bearing  animals; 
thus  lead  at  once  assumed  a  value  in  the  eyes 
of  the  latter,  both  for  use  as  bullets  in  their 
own  weapons,  and  as  an  article  of  traffic  with 
the  traders. 

The  Wisconsin  and  Illinois  Indians  were 
visited  in  1634  by  Nicolet,  who  doubtless  was 
Taught  by  the  first  to  tcach  them  the  use  of  lead 
■whites  jj^  connection  with  fire-arms.  Ra- 
disson  and  Groseilliers  followed  in  1658-59, 
and  heard  of  lead  mines  among  the  Boeuf 
Sioux,  apparently  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Dubuque.^ 

Jolliet  and  Marquette,  when  in  1673  return- 

ing  from  the  Lower  Mississippi,  must 

trajfic  in      havc  instructed  the  Illinois  in  the  use 

°^''  of  fire-arms  and  the  utility  of  lead  — 

if,  indeed,  this  tribe  had  not  already  had  some 

1  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  xi.,  p.  93. 


Early  Lead  Mining  301 

traffic  in  the  ore  with  wandering  traders  and 
coureurs  de  bois  operating  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Mississippi  River  or  on  Lake  Michi- 
gan, of  whose  presence  in  the  region  we  catch 
faint  glimpses  in  the  earhest  records  of  ex- 
ploration.^ 

The  journals  of  Marquette  and  of  La  Hontan 
(1689)  speak  of  the  mineral  wealth  of  the 
Upper  Mississippi  country;  but  they  appear 
never  to  have  seen  the  mines  themselves,  and, 
misunderstanding  their  informants,  concluded 
that  the  deposits  were  of  gold,  silver,  and 
copper.  Hennepin's  map  of  1687  ^  places  a 
lead  mine  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  present 
Galena,  showing  that  he  had  definite  infor- 
mation regarding  it.  Joutel,  who  was  in  the 
country  that  year,  says  ^  that  "  travelers  who 
have  been  at  the  upper  part  of  the  Mississippi 

1  "  There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  many  of  the  French 
voyageurs  besides  M.  Perrot  and  the  Du  I'Huts  had  explored 
a  large  part  of  the  country  *  *  *  at  a  very  early  day,  but  of 
their  adventures  we  have  no  account,  because  they  were  not 
sufficiently  educated  to  record  them.  We  have  occasionally 
incidental  allusions  in  public  documents,  in  works  on 
geography,  and  in  memoirs,  which  prove  this  to  have  been 
the  case  "  —  Mills,  Report  on  the  Boundaries  of  the  Province 
of  Ontario  (Ottawa,  1877),  p.  6. 

2  Breese,  Early  History  of  Illinois;  and  Winchell,  Geo- 
logical Survey  of  Minnesota,  Final  Report. 

^  Joutel,  fournal  {1712)' 


302       Essays  in  Western  History 

affirm  that  they  have  found  mines  of  very  good 
lead  there." 

It  is  alleged^  that  some  French  traders 
stationed  in  the  vicinity  of  Peoria  Lake,  on  the 
Illinois  River,  purchased  a  quantity  of  lead  in 
1690  from  certain  Indian  mines  on  what  after- 
wards came  to  be  known  as  Fever  or  Galena 
River. 

After  having  made  an  expedition  up  the 
Mississippi  in  1690,  Nicholas  Perrot,  then 
PerroVs  French  commandant  of  the  West,  on 
mines  being   presented   by  a  Miami   chief 

with  a  lump  of  lead  ore,  promised  that 
within  twenty  days  he  would  establish  a  post 
below  the  Wisconsin  River.^  La  Potherie 
says^  that  the  chief  gave  Perrot  information 
as  to  the  locality  of  the  mines,  and  the  latter 
accordingly  visited  them.  Perrot,  we  are  told, 
found  "  the  lead  hard  to  work,  because  it  lay 
between  rocks  and  required  blasting;  it  had 
very  little  dross,  and  was  easily  melted."  His 
post,  built  at  this  time,  was  doubtless  on  the 
east  side  of  the  river,  apparently  opposite  the 
Dubuque  mines. 

1  Hunfs  Merchants*  Magazine ,  xviii.,  p.  285. 

2  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  xvi.,  pp.  146,  151,  157. 

8  Edition  of  1753,  ii.,  p.  251;  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  pp.  ^01, 
331- 


Early  Lead  Mining  303 

As  early  as  1693  Le  Sueur  was  commandant 
at  Chequamegon  Bay,  and  appears  to  have 
Le  Sueur's  made  extended  explorations  through- 
operations  ^^^  ^^e  Upper  Mississippi  valley, 
thereby  **  acquiring  renown."^  In  1695  he 
built  a  fort  on  a  large  island  in  the  Missis- 
sippi River  between  Lake  Pepin  and  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Croix,^  which  became  for 
the  French,  says  Charlevoix,  "  the  centre  of 
commerce  for  the  Western  parts."  While 
occupying  this  position,  it  appears  that  Le 
Sueur  discovered  *'  mines  of  lead,  copper,  and 
blue  and  green  earth,"  ^  and  went  to  France 
to  solicit  the  court's  permission  to  work  them. 
After  many  delays,  he  returned  in  1699,  in 
D'Iberville's  second  expedition  to  Louisiana, 
which  arrived  at  its  destination  in  December. 
Having  been  commissioned  by  the  king  to 
explore  and  work  "  the  mines  at  the  source  of 
the  Mississippi,"  he  had  thirty  miners  assigned 
to  him.  His  reporter  and  companion,  P^nicaut, 
after  speaking  of  the  rapids  in  the  Mississippi 
at  Rock  Island,  says :  "  We  found  both  on  the 
right  and  left  bank  the  lead  mines,  called  to 

^  Shea,  Early  Voyages  up  and  down  the  Mississippi 
(Albany,  1861),  pp.  89  et  seq. 

2  Neill,  History  of  Minnesota  (1882),  p.  148;  Thwaites, 
Story  of  Wisconsin  (Boston,  1890),  p.  79. 

8  Wis,  Hist.  Colls.,  xvi.,  p.  178. 


304       Essays  in  Western  History 

this  day  the  mines  of  Nicholas  Perrot,  the  name 
of  the  discoverer.  Twenty  leagues  [thirty-nine 
English  miles,  by  U.  S.  land  survey]  from 
there  on  the  right,  was  found  the  mouth  of  a 
large  river,  the  Ouisconsin."  ^  It  was  the 
thirteenth  of  August,  1700,  when  they  arrived 
opposite  Fever  River,  which  Penicaut  calls 
*'  Riviere  a  la  Mine."  He  reports  that  up  this 
little  river,  a  league  and  a  half,  there  was  "  a 
lead  mine  in  the  prairie."  Passing  up  the 
Mississippi,  Penicaut  mentions  two  streams 
which  correspond  to  the  Platte  and  Grant 
rivers,  in  Wisconsin,  and  says  that  Le  Sueur 
"  took  notice  of  a  lead  mine  at  which  he  sup- 
plied himself"  —  supposed  to  be  what  after- 
wards came  to  be  known  as  "  Snake  diggings," 
near  Potosi,  Wisconsin.  After  making  note 
of  the  Black,  Buffalo,  Chippewa,  and  St.  Croix 
rivers,  in  Wisconsin,  Le  Sueur  passed  the  winter 
on  the  Blue  River,  in  what  is  now  Minnesota. 
He  does  not  appear,  except  for  his  immediate 
necessities,  to  have  utilized  the  lead  mines  he 
had  discovered,  and  the  following  summer 
abandoned  his  post,  returning  to  France.^ 

1  Margry,  v.,  p.  412. 

2  In  this  same  year  (1700),  Father  Gravier  made  a  trip 
down  the  Mississippi,  and  wrote:  "  I  do  not  know  what  our 
court  will  decide  about  the  Mississippi,  if  no  silver  mines 
arc  found,  for  our  government  does  not  seek  land  to  cultivate. 


Early  Lead  Mining  305 

On  William  de  I'lsle's  chart  of  Louisiana 
(1703),  in  which  he  was  assisted  by  the  obser- 
vations of  Le  Sueur,  the  Galena  lead  mines  are 
plainly  indicated,  as  are  also  the  Dubuque 
mines  on  the  west  side.^ 

September  14,  17 12,  Louis  XIV.  granted  to 
Sieur  Anthony  Crozat,  for  a  term  of  fifteen 
Crozafs  years,  a  monopoly  of  trade  and  min- 
monofoiy  jj^g  privileges  in  Louisiana.  The 
mines  were  granted  in  perpetuity,  subject  to  a 
royalty,  and  to  forfeiture  if  abandoned.  While 
Oozat's  men  found  none  of  the  precious 
metals,  they  appear  to  have  discovered  consid- 
erable lead  deposits  in  what  is  now  South- 
eastern Missouri ;  ^  and  no  doubt  the  English 
traders,  who  seriously  encroached  on  the 
French  domain,  and  the  wandering  coureurs 
de  bois,  had  more  or  less  traffic  with  the 
Indians  for  ore,  to  meet  both  present  needs 
and  home  demand. 

In  1 71 5,  La  Mothe  Cadillac,  governor  of 
Louisiana,  and  founder  of  Detroit,  went  up  to 
the  Illinois  country  in  search  of  reputed  silver 

They  care  little  for  mines  of  lead,  which  are  very  abundant 
near  the  Illinois."  —  Winsor,  Cartier  to  Frontenac  (Boston, 
1894),  p.  365. 

1  Neill,  Minnesota^  p.  xlv. 

2  Wallace,  Illinois  and  Louisiana  wider  French  Rule  (Cin- 
cinnati, 1893),  pp.  239,  240. 

20 


3o6       Essays  in  Western  History 

mines,  but  carried  back  only  lead  ore  *'  from 
the  mines  which  were  shown  him  fourteen 
miles  west  of  the  river."  ^ 

Crozat  resigned  his  monopoly  to  John  Law's 
Company  of  the  West,  chartered  September 
6,  1717;  and  two  years  later  Louisiana  —  to 
which  the  Illinois  country  had  now  been  at- 
tached—  entered  upon  the  brief  period  of 
"boom"  which  was  inaugurated  by  that  ill- 
timed  enterprise. 

In  1 719  there  arrived  in  the  Illinois,  Philippe 
Francois  de  Renault,  newly  appointed  "direc- 
DeRe-  tor-geucral  of  the  mines  of  the 
nauWsdis-  Royal  India  Company  in  Illinois."  ^ 
covertes  j^^  despatched  prospecting  parties  to 
various  points  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  during  the  four  years  which  he 
spent  in  the  district  discovered  lead  mines  on 
the  Meramec  River  and  north  of  what  is  now 
Potosi,  in  Missouri ;  while  M.  de  la  Motte  found 
paying  leads  on  the  St.  Francois  River,  also  in 
Missouri.  July  21,  1722,  one  Le  Gardeur  de 
risle  writes  from  Fort  Chartres,  near  Kaskaskia, 

1  Winsor,  Narr.  and  Crit.  Hist,  of  Amer.,  v.,  p.  50. 

2  The  term  Illinois  was  then  applied  to  a  large  district 
lying  on  the  Mississippi  and  centring  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Illinois  River  —  practically  all  of  the  present  State  of  that 
name,  and  the  eastern  half  of  Missouri  and  Iowa. 


Early  Lead  Mining  307 

that  he  was  in  command  of  a  detachment  of 
twelve  soldiers  to  accompany  M.  de  Renault  to 
the  Illinois  River,  to  look  after  some  alleged 
copper  and  coal  mines,  and  found  what  he 
claimed  to  be  silver  and  gold.^  No  doubt  these 
deposits  were  but  lead  and  coal,  for  the  French 
explorers  were  prone  to  deceive  their  patrons 
as  to  the  value  of  their  mineral  discoveries. 
Charlevoix  refers  to  alleged  silver  discoveries 
by  Cadillac,  but  doubtingly.  Shea  says  ^  that 
De  Renault  "  extracted  silver  from  Illinois  lead 
ore  in  1722."  Silver  is  certainly  combined  with 
the  lead,  in  this  district,  but  is  not  present  in 
quantity  sufficient  for  profitable  working.  In 
June,  1723,  De  Renault  was  granted  a  square 
league  of  territory  in  the  northwestern  part  of 
what  is  now  Monroe  County,  Illinois,  and  also 
a  tract  at  Peoria  containing  about  fourteen 
thousand  acres.  Upon  the  former  grant  he 
planted  a  small  village  named  St.  Philippe ;  but 
by  1765  the  place  was  deserted,  the  French 
residents  having  removed  to  the  west  bank  of 
the  Mississippi.^ 

The  next  reference  we  find  to  the  lead  mines 
is  in   1743,  when  a  M.  le   Guis  gives  an  ac- 

1  E.  B.  Washburne's  letter  to  Chicago  Hist.  Soc. 

2  In  his  edition  of  Charlevoix,  vi.,  p.  25. 

^  E.  B.  Washburne's  letter  to  Chicago  Hist.  Soc. 


3o8       Essays  in  Western  History 

count  ^  of  the  methods  of  "  eighteen  or  twenty  " 
miners  then  operating  in  the  Fever  River  re- 
Primitive  gion  —  a  fast  lot,  he  says,  every  man 
methods  working  for  himself  at  surface  oper- 
ations, and  extracting  only  enough  to  secure 
a  bare  existence  for  the  rest  of  the  year.  Le 
Guis  makes  the  following  report  of  wasteful 
smelting  methods  employed  by  these  miners, 
which  were  strikingly  similar  to  those  in  vogue 
among  American  miners  of  later  days  until  the 
introduction  of  the  Drummond  blast  furnace,^ 
about  1836:  '*  They  cut  down  two  or  three  big 
trees  and  divide  them  in  logs  five  feet  long ; 
then  they  dig  a  small  basin  in  the  ground  and 
pile  three  or  four  of  these  logs  on  top  of  each 
other  over  this  basin :  then  they  cover  it  with 
the  same  wood,  and  put  three  more  logs, 
shorter  than  the  first,  on  top,  and  one  at  each 
end  crossways.  This  makes  a  kind  of  box,  in 
which  they  put  the  mineral,  then  they  pile  as 
much  wood  as  they  can  on  top  and  around  it. 
When  this  is  done,  they  set  fire  to  it  from 
under ;  the  logs  burn  up  and  partly  melt  the 
mineral.  They  are  sometimes  obliged  to  re- 
peat the  same  operation  three  times  in  order 

1  Wallace,  pp.  274,  275. 

2  Invented  by   Robert  A.  Drummond,   of    Jo  Daviess 
Comity,  111. 


Early  Lead  Mining  309 

to  extract  all  the  matter.  This  matter,  falling 
into  the  basin,  forms  a  lump,  which  they  after- 
ward melt  over  again  into  bars  weighing  from 
sixty  to  eighty  pounds,  in  order  to  facilitate  the 
transportation  to  Kaskaskia.  This  is  done  with 
horses,  who  are  quite  vigorous  in  the  country. 
One  horse  carries  generally  four  or  five  of  these 
bars.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  gentlemen,  that 
in  spite  of  the  bad  system  these  men  have  to 
work,  there  has  been  taken  out  of  the  La  Motte 
mine  2,500  of  these  bars  in  1741,  2,228  in  1742, 
and  these  men  work  only  four  or  five  months 
in  the  year  at  most." 

Up  to  November  3,  1762,  France  held  pos- 
session of  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
France  then  ccdcd  the  eastern  half  of  the 
and  Spain  valley  to  Great  Britain.  In  the  same 
year,  France  made  a  secret  treaty  with  Spain 
by  which  the  country  west  of  the  river  was 
transferred  to  the  latter  power,  which,  how- 
ever, allowed  six  years  to  elapse  before  she 
assumed  charge. 

In  1763,  Francis  Benton  made  finds  of  lead 
near  Potosi,  Missouri,  and  for  a  time  had 
extensive,  workings  there. 

The  map  made  by  Jonathan  Carver,  as  a 
result  of  his  extended  Northwestern  travels  in 
1766,  places  lead  mines  at  Blue  Mounds,  just 


3IO       Essays  in  Western  History 

south  of  the  Wisconsin  River.  He  found  ore  in 
the  streets  of  "  the  Great  Town  of  the  Saukies," 
about  the  site  of  the  present  Prairie  du  Sac, 
and  appears  to  have  ascended  the  principal 
mound,  which  he  says  **  abounded  in  lead."  ^ 
In  Captain  Henry  Gordon's  Journal,  written 
the  same  year  (1766) ,2  occurs  the  following 
.  passage,  showing   that   there  was  at 

siderabie  that  time  a  considerable  lead  industry 
industry  j^^  progrcss  among  the  French  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Mississippi :  "  The  French 
have  large  boats  of  20  tons,  rowed  with  20 
oars,  which  will  go  in  seventy  odd  days  from 
New  Orleans  to  the  Ilinois.  These  boats  go  to 
the  Ilinois  twice  a  year,  and  are  not  half  loaded 
on  their  return ;  was  there  any  produce  worth 
sending  to  market,  they  could  carry  it  at  no 
great  expence.  They,  however,  carry  lead,  the 
produce  of  a  mine  on  the  French  side  of  the 
river,  which  yields  but  a  small  quantity,  as  they 
have  not  hands  to  work  it.  These  boats,  in 
times  of  the  floods,  which  happen  only  in  May 
and  June,  go  down  to  New  Orleans  from  the 
Ilinois  in  14  and  16  days." 

The  first  application  for  a  concession  of  lead- 

1  Carver,  Travels  (London,  1778),  pp.  47,  48. 

2  In  Pownall,  Topographical  Description  of  North  America 
(London,  1776). 


Early  Lead  Mining  3 1 1 

mine  land  in  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi was  made  in  1 769  by  Martin  Miloney 
Duraide's  Duralde,  who  signed  his  application 
grant  ^^  g^.  Louis,  July  5,  1 769.     The  day 

following,  the  grant  was  issued  by  Louis  St 
Ange  de  Bellerive,  captain-commandant  of  the 
Illinois,  and  Joseph  Labuxiere,  "  attorney  of 
the  attorney  general,  judge,  etc.,  of  the  royal 
jurisdiction  of  the  Illinois,  for  the  French." 
This  tract  embraced  land  *'  three  arpents  in 
front,  by  the  ordinary  depth,"  ^  on  Le  Sueur's 
River  of  the  Mines  (Fever  River),  **  i6o  leagues, 
more  or  less,  above "  St.  Louis.  From  the 
tone  of  his  petition,  Duralde  appears  to  have 
been  a  ne'er-do-well,  and  there  is  no  record 
extant  to  show  that  he  ever  settled  upon  his 
grant  or  opened  any  mines,  although  the 
Spaniards  confirmed  all  French  grants. 

Captain  Philip  Pittman,  writing  in  1770  of 

1  French  claims  in  Michigan  were  usually  forty  arpents  in 
depth ;  at  Green  Bay  these  claims  were  merely  possessory, 
and  allowed  by  the  government  to  extend  eighty  arpents  from 
front  to  rear.  The  old  Spanish  common-field  lots,  in  and 
around  St.  Louis,  were  from  one  to  four  arpents  wide  on  the 
river,  by  forty  in  depth.  This  appears  to  have  been  **  the 
usual  depth  "  of  grants  during  this  period,  although  in  special 
cases  they  were  much  more  ample.  The  Spanish  and  French 
grants  in  Upper  Louisiana  are  fully  discussed  in  Scharf's 
St.  Louis,  chap.  xiii.  The  arpent  is  equal  to  about  192  feet, 
English  linear  measure. 


312       Essays  in  Western  History 

Ste.  Genevieve,^  which  had  become  a  notable 
market  for  lead,  says :  **  A  lead  mine  about  fif- 
A  notable  teen  leagues  distant,  supplies  the  whole 
market  country  with  shot."  It  appears  that 
at  this  time  lead  was,  next  to  peltries,  the  most 
important  and  valuable  export  of  the  country, 
and  served  as  currency.  The  lead  trade  was 
afterwards  transferred  to  St.  Louis,  when  that 
town  began  to  control  the  commerce  of  the 
region.2  One  of  the  largest  lead-dealers  of  the 
day  was  Joseph  A.  Sire,  an  associate  of  Chou- 
teau &  Sarp's  fur  company.  Under  the  Spanish 
regime,  which  now  ensued,  we  are  told  by 
Stoddard,^  a  careful  annalist,  that  lead  miners 
working  for  themselves  often  took  out  *'  thirty 
dollars  per  day,  for  weeks  together."  The 
traders  who  dealt  in  the  material  also  made 
large  profits,  the  returns  being  "  cent  per  cent 
for  the  capital  invested."  ^ 

1  Present  State  of  European  Settlements  on  the  Mississippi 
(London,  1770). 

2  In  Ogden,  Letters  from  the  West  (New  Bedford,  Mass., 
1823),  p,  58,  is  this  entry,  showing  that  Ste.  Genevieve  was 
still  flourishing  in  his  time  :  "  St.  Genevieve,  in  particular,  is 
a  fine  flourishing  town.  Here,  back  of  the  river,  lead  ore  is 
found  in  great  abundance,  which  has  beconaie  a  traffic  of  great 
profit  to  the  inhabitants." 

*  Major  Amos  Stoddard,  Sketches  Hist,  and  Descrip.  of 
Louisiana  (Philadelphia,  181 2). 

*  Scharf,  St.  Louis,  p.  308 ;  Mich.  Pion.  Colls.,  ix.,  p.  548. 
In  his  notes  to  Forman's  Narrative  (Cincinnati,  1888),  L.  C. 


Early  Lead  Mining  3 1 3 

Julien  Dubuque  was  the  next  character  of 
note  upon  the  scene.  He  was  a  man  of  re- 
Dubugue's  markable  energy,  and  influential  with 
mines  tj^g    Indians.     In    1788   he   obtained 

from  a  full  council  of  Sauk  and  Fox  Indians, 
held  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  formal  permit  "  to 
work  lead  mines  tranquilly  and  without  any 
prejudice  to  his  labors."  He  had  previously 
made  rich  discoveries  of  this  ore  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  bluffs  and  ra- 
vines adjoining  the  site  of  the  present  Iowa 
town  which  bears  his  name.  In  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  his  mines,  if  not  one  of  them, 
was  a  rich  lead  discovered  in  1780  by  the  squaw 
of  Peosta,  a  Fox  warrior.^     Tradition  has  it  that 

Draper  says :  "  About  the  first  of  June,  1790,  Colonel  Vigo, 
an  enterprising  trader  of  the  Illinois  country,  consigned  to 
him  [Michael  Lacassangue,  a  Louisville  trader]  4,000  pounds 
of  lead,  brought  by  Major  Doughty  [who  built  the  fort  at 
Cincinnati]  from  Kaskaskia." 

In  1796,  John  James  Dufour,  afterwards  founder  of  the 
Swiss  colony  at  Vevay,  Ind.,  came  to  America  and  made  his 
start  here  by  buying  lead  at  Kaskaskia,  St.  Louis,  etc.,  and 
taking  it  up  the  Ohio  River  to  Pittsburg,  where  he  disposed 
of  the  cargo  at  a  profit.  With  the  proceeds  he  bought  630 
acres  of  land  for  a  vineyard,  at  the  Big  Bend  of  Kentucky 
River. 

1  Schoolcraft,  Discovery  of  Sources  of  Mississippi  River 
(Phila.,  1855),  pp.  174,  175.  Schoolcraft  visited  the  Dubuque 
mines  in  1820,  and  gives  an  entertaining  account  of  them  and 
the  native  manner  of  working  them  —  ibid.^  pp.  169-173.     He 


314       Essays  in  Western  History 

when  Dubuque  made  his  first  location,  a  man 
named  Du  Bois  was  living  at  a  mine  on  the 
eastern  bank,  nearly  opposite  —  probably  just 
south  of  the  present  village  of  Dunleith. 
Dubuque,  in  honor  of  the  Spanish  possessors 
of  the  soil,  styled  his  diggings  "The  Spanish 
Mines."  Undoubtedly  some  Spaniards  had 
before  his  time  conducted  operations  in  the 
neighborhood,  for  when  he  went  into  the  coun- 
try he  found  substantial  roads  built  for  the 
transportation  of  ore ;  these,  the  Indians  told 
him,  had  been  made  by  Spaniards.^  Dubuque 
does  not  appear  to  have  restricted  himself  to 
the  west  side  of  the  river.  It  is  believed  that 
his  prospectors  and  miners,  who  all  enjoyed 
the  full  sympathy  and  confidence  of  the  Sauks 
and  Foxes,  roved  at  will  on  both  sides,  and 
opened  leads  on  Apple  River,  near  the  present 

places  the  distance  below  Prairie  du  Chien  at  sixty  miles,  and 
the  extent  of  the  tract,  '*  seven  leagues  in  front  [along  the 
Mississippi]  by  three  in  depth."  See  also  Schoolcraft,  Viav 
of  the  Lead  Mines  of  Missouri,  etc.  (N.  Y.,  1819). 

1  In  1780,  as  appears  from  letters  of  Lieutenant-Governor 
Patrick  Sinclair  to  General  Frederick  Haldimand  (  Wis.  Hist. 
Coll.,  xi.,  pp.  151,  152,  155,  156),  the  Sauks  and  Foxes,  led 
by  MM.  Calve  and  Ducharme,  were  in  active  league  with 
Spanish  and  American  miners  against  British  influences  in 
the  diggings.  The  Winnebagoes  and  Menominees  assisted 
the  British  in  attacking  the  miners,  and  seventeen  of  the 
Americans  and  Spaniards  ^ere  taken  prisoners  to  Mackinac. 


Early  Lead  Mining  3 1 5 

village  of  Elizabeth;  and  as  early  as  1805  even 
operated  the  old  Buck  and  Hog  leads  on  Fever 
River. 

It  is  fair  to  presume  that  the  Indians  had 
themselves  crudely  operated  the  mines  fully 
Aboriginal  ^  ccntury  before  Dubuque's  time. 
smelting  ^xsX^  as  we  have  seen,  this  was  doubt- 
less only  to  obtain  bullets  for  the  guns  which 
they  had  acquired  through  trade  with  the 
French,  and  to  furnish  the  fur-traders  with  a 
commodity  quite  as  desirable  as  peltries.  It 
is  presumable  that  the  French  first  taught  the 
natives  how  to  mine  and  smelt  the  ore.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  the  American  aborigines 
ever  practised  the  arts  of  smelting  and  casting, 
before  the  advent  of  the  whites.  The  methods 
in  vogue  among  the  Indians  were  practically 
such  as  the  whites  are  known  to  have  employed 
in  the  earlier  days  of  lead-mining,  and  are  thus 
described  by  an  eye-witness,  writing  in  1819: 
"  A  hole  was  dug  in  the  face  of  a  piece  of 
sloping  ground,  about  two  feet  deep  and  as 
wide  at  the  top.  This  hole  was  shaped  hke  a 
mill-hopper  and  lined  with  flat  stones.  At  the 
bottom  or  point  of  the  hopper,  which  was  eight 
or  nine  inches  square,  narrow  stones  were  laid 
across,  gratewise.  A  trench  was  dug  from  the 
sloping  ground  inward  to  the  bottom  of  the 


3i6       Essays  in  Western  History 

hopper.  This  channel  was  a  foot  in  width 
and  height,  and  was  filled  with  dry  wood  and 
brush.  The  hopper  being  filled  with  the  ore 
and  the  fuel  ignited,  in  a  few  minutes  the 
molten  lead  fell  through  the  stones  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  hopper,  and  thence  was  discharged 
through  the  trench  over  the  earth.  The  fluid 
mass  was  then  poured  into  an  awkward  mould, 
and  as  it  cooled  it  was  called  a  *  plat,'  weighing 
about  70  lbs.,  very  nearly  the  weight  of  the 
*  pig  '  of  later  days." 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  this  method 
was  an  improvement  over  that  in  vogue  among 
the  savages  in  the  time  of  early  French  domi- 
nation; for  we  read  that  in  Crozat's  day  the 
Indians  reduced  the  mineral  by  throwing  it 
on  top  of  large  fires.  **  Large  logs  would  be 
placed  on  the  ground  and  smaller  pieces  of 
wood  piled  around  and  the  ore  heaped  on. 
The  fire  would  be  set  in  the  evening,  and  in  the 
morning  shapeless  pieces  of  lead  would  be 
found  in  cakes,  or  in  small  holes  scratched  in 
the  earth  under  the  logs;  or  sometimes  in 
shapeless  masses.  These  pieces  were  sold  to 
the  traders."  ^ 

We  are   told   by  another  writer  ^  that  the 

1  Cf.  Wis.  Hist  Colls.,  ii.,  p.  228. 

2  Uist.Jo  Daviess  Co.,  III.  (Chicago,  1878),  p.  836. 


Early  Lead  Mining  3 1 7 

Indians  as  a  rule  but  only  skimmed  the  sur- 
face; although  occasionally  they  drifted  into 
side-hills  for  some  distance,  and  upon  reaching 
Aboriginal  **  Cap  rock  "  would  build  a  fire  under 
mining  j|.  ^j^^^  ^-j^gj^  crack  the  ore  by  dashing 
cold  water  on  the  heated  surface.  In  the  earli- 
est times,  their  tools  were  buck-horns,  many  of 
which  were  found  in  abandoned  drifts  by  the 
early  white  settlers ;  but  in  Dubuque's  day  they 
obtained  hoes,  shovels,  and  crowbars  from  the 
traders  to  whom  they  sold  lead.  The  Indians 
loaded  their  ore  at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  into 
tough  deerskins,  the  bundle  being  hoisted  to 
the  surface  or  dragged  up  inclined  planes  by 
long  thongs  of  hide.^  Many  of  these  Indian 
leads,  abandoned  by  the  aborigines  when  the 
work  of  development  became  too  difficult  for 
their  simple  tools,  were  afterwards  taken  pos- 
session of  by  whites,  with  improved  appliances, 
and  found  to  be  among  the  best  in  the  region. 
Early  writers  generally  agree  that  the  Indian 
mining  was  almost  wholly  conducted  by  old 
men  and  squaws,  the  bucks  doing  the  smelting. 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  in  later 
days  a  good  many  bucks  worked  in  these  prim- 
itive mines,  and  many  of  them  are  known  to 
have  assisted  Dubuque.    The  Sauks  and  Foxes 

1  Hist.  Grant  Co.  (Chicago,  1881),  p.  477. 


3i8       Essays  in  Western  History 

were  the  owners  of  the  lead-mine  district  during 
the  eighteenth  century,  but  by  the  treaty  of 
1804  they  relinquished  their  lands  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  gypsy  Winnebagoes  then 
squatted  in  the  district;  although  with  them 
were  mingled  many  Sauks  and  Foxes  who  had 
married  into  the  Winnebago  tribe,  in  addition 
to  "  the  British  Band  "  of  Sauks,  around  Rock 
Island,  who  were  afterwards  (1832)  impHcated 
in  the  Black  Hawk  War. 

Dubuque  appears  to  have  largely  employed 
his  Indian  friends  in  prospecting  for  lead 
mines.  When  their  discoveries  were  reported 
to  him,  he  would  send  Canadians  and  half- 
Dubugue's  t>reeds  to  prove  the  claims  and  some- 
indian  times  to  work  them ;  although  in 
prospectors  j^^j^^  cascs,  hc  wQS  contcut  with 
proving  the  claim  and  allowing  the  Indians  to 
work  it  themselves,  the  product  being  brought 
to  his  large  trading-house  on  the  west  side  of 
the  river.  In  this  manner  the  entire  lead  region 
of  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and  Illinois  became  more 
or  less  occupied  by  Dubuque's  men  before  any 
permanent  American  settlement.^ 

Conciliating  the   Spaniards  by  naming  his 

1  In  1826,  at  Ottawa  (Allenwrath  diggings),  two  miles 
from  Galena,  there  was  found,  under  the  ashes  of  a  primitive 
furnace,  a  heavy  sledge-hammer,  undoubtedly  left  by  Du- 
buque's miners. 


Early  Lead  Mining  3 1 9 

west-side  plant  "  The  mines  of  Spain,"  Dubuque 
deemed  it  advisable  to  seek  a  formal  recog- 
nition from  the  government  of  Louisiana.  He 
obtained,  November  10,  1796,  from  Baron  de 
"  The  Carondelet,    Spanish    intendant    and 

Mines  of  govemor-general  of  the  province,  the 
grant  of  a  tract  seven  leagues  in 
length  along  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
by  three  in  depth,  but  with  certain  restric- 
tions as  to  trade,  to  be  prescribed  by  "  the 
merchant  Don  Andrew  Todd,"  who  had  a 
monopoly  of  the  commerce  of  the  upper  val- 
ley. Dubuque's  friendship  with  the  Indians 
and  their  dislike  of  the  Spanish  were  a  suffi- 
cient safeguard  against  interference  from  Don 
Andrew;  although  he  appears  to  have  met 
with  no  small  opposition  on  the  east  side  of 
the  river  from  wandering  representatives  of 
the  American  Fur  Company,  whose  Mackinac 
agents  are  said  to  have  obtained  considerable 
supplies  of  lead  from  the  crafty  Foxes,  and  in- 
deed to  have  themselves  smelted  some  ore. 

Dubuque  waxed  wealthy  from  his  lead  and 
peltries,  which  he  shipped  to  St.  Louis,  making 
semi-annual  trips  in  a  pirogue.  Li  a  formal 
statement  made  to  Major  Zebulon  M.  Pike 
(September  i,  1805),^  he  claimed  that  his  mines 

1  Pike,  Expedition  (Philadelphia,  1810),  appendix  to  part  i.. 
PS- 


320       Essays  i7i  Western  History 

on  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi  extended 
over  a  tract  of  territory  "  twenty-eight  or 
Dubuque's  twenty-seven  leagues  long,  and  from 
statement  Q^e  to  three  broad."  He  said  that  he 
made  each  year  from  twenty  to  forty  thousand 
pounds  of  lead  pigs ;  although  it  is  probable 
that  this  was  an  underestimate,  for  evidently  he 
did  not  view  with  favor  this  evidence  of  Ameri- 
can curiosity  about  his  affairs. 

In  1800,  France  coerced  Spain  into  retro- 
ceding  Louisiana,  and  three  years  later  sold  it 
to  the  United  States.  It  was,  however,  several 
years  before  Americans  began  operations  in 
the  lead  region  of  the  Upper  Mississippi. 

We  incidentally  learn  that  in  181 1  George  E. 
Jackson,  a  Missouri  miner,  had  a  rude  log  fur- 
nace on  an  island  —  now  washed  away  —  tow- 
ards the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi,  not  far 
below  Dunleith  and  nearly  opposite  the  mouth 
of  Catfish  Creek.^  Jackson  floated  his  lead  to 
Oi>enin  of  ^^*  ^^^^^  ^V  A^tboat,  and  experi- 
American  enccd  much  troublc  with  the  Indians, 
regime  ^^^^  j^^j  ^  thorough  disHke  for  Eng- 
lishmen and  Americans.  The  reason  for  their 
aversion  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  which  with 
few  exceptions  has  been  noticeable  from  our 

1  Hist.  La  Fayette  Co,  (Chicago,  1881),  p.  394.  Cf.  Wis, 
Hist.  Colls.,  vi.,  p.  272. 


Early  Lead  Miriing  32 1 

earliest  intercourse  with  the  red  man,  is  easily 
explained.  The  French  have  been  more  in 
sympathy  with  the  savages,  with  whom  their 
pioneers  have  readily  intermarried ;  they  settled 
among  Indians  for  the  purposes  of  the  fur-trade, 
and  their  interests  were  identical  with  those  of 
the  Indians,  being  to  keep  the  forests  intact. 
The  bearing  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  towards  the 
savage  has  ever  been  of  a  domineering  char- 
acter; we  are  pre-eminently  an  agricultural 
and  manufacturing  people ;  our  plan  of  coloni- 
zation aims  at  the  reduction  of  nature,  with  the 
view  to  making  the  land  support  a  large  popu- 
lation. Our  aims,  our  methods,  our  manners, 
are  diametrically  opposed  to  a  state  of  savag- 
ery. We  are  a  covetous  people,  and  it  did  not 
take  long  for  the  Indian  to  understand  that  the 
English  or  American  borderer  was  the  herald 
of  a  relentless  system  of  conquest.  In  the 
presence  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  settler,  there  was 
no  room  for  the  Indian. 

In  1812-13,  John  S.  Miller  joined  fortunes 
with  Jackson,  but  soon  afterwards  they  aban- 
doned their  island  furnace  and  returned  down 
the  river.  Five  years  later,  Miller  returned 
with  two  companions,  traded  a  boat-load  of 
goods  at  Dubuque's  old  mines,  and  is  sup- 
posed to  have  penetrated  to  the  site  of  Galena 
21 


32  2       Essays  in  Western  History 

and  spent  some  time  in  the  lead  region.  Miller 
and  Jackson  again  visited  the  place  in  1823. 

The  manufacture  of  shot  near  St.  Louis 
dates  from  1809,  when  J.  Macklot  ran  his  first 
cast  through  a  tower  which  he  had  erected  at 
A  shot  Herculaneum,  thirty  miles  distant 
tower  from  St.  Louis,  on  the  Joachim  River. 

Indians  brought  lead  in  small  quantities  in 
their  canoes,  but  the  bulk  of  the  ore  was  trans- 
ported from  the  mines  by  Frenchmen. 

In  the  following  February,  Nicholas  Boilvin, 
then  United  States  agent  for  the  Winnebagoes, 
passed  through  on  foot  from  Rock  Island  to 
Prairie  du  Chien,  with  Indian  guides  who 
The  Buck  showcd  him  a  lead  mine  near  Fever 
^^""^  River  —  supposed   to  be  what  after- 

wards came  to  be  known  as  the  "  Buck  lead."  ^ 
In  a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  war,  dated  a  year 
later,^  Agent  Boilvin  reported  that  the  Sauks 
and  Foxes  (on  the  eastern  side  of  the  river) 
and  the  lowas  (on  the  west  side)  had  "  mostly 
abandoned  the  chase,  except  to  furnish  them- 
selves with  meat,  and  turned  their  attention  to 
the  manufacture  of  lead,  which  they  procure 
from  a  mine  about  sixty  miles  below  Prairie  du 
Chien,"  —  undoubtedly  the  Fever   River  and 

1  Hist.  La  Fayette  Co.,  p.  396. 

2  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  xi.,  p.  252. 


Early  Lead  Mining  323 

Dubuque  diggings.  He  reports  that  in  18 10 
they  manufactured  four  hundred  thousand 
pounds  of  the  metal,  which  they  exchanged 
for  goods,  mainly  with  Canadian  traders,  who 
were  continually  inciting  them  to  opposition 
against  Americans.  Boilvin  alludes  to  the  fact 
that  the  Indians  found  lead-mining  more  prof- 
itable than  hunting,  and  that  the  government 
would  be  wise  to  introduce  among  them  a 
blacksmith  and  improved  tools.  He  thinks 
that  by  thus  encouraging  the  Indian  miners, 
"  the  Canadian  trade  would  be  extinguished." 

In  the  same  year  (18 10)  Henry  Shreeve  is 
said  to  have  worked  up  the  Mississippi  as  far 
as  Fever  River,  and  taken  back  from  there  to 
the  towns  on  the  lower  Mississippi,  a  small 
cargo  of  Indian-smelted  lead. 

Between  181 5  and  1820,  Captain  John  Shaw 
made  eight  trips  with  a  trading  boat  between 
St.  Louis  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  several 
times  visited  the  Fever  River  mines,  where  he 
saw  the  Indians  smelting  lead  in  rude  furnaces. 
At  one  time  he  bought  from  them  seventy 
tons  of  metal,  "  and  still  left  much  at  the 
furnace."  ^ 

Boilvin  does  not  appear  to  have  broken  up 

^  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  viii.,  p.  250.  See  Shaw's  personal 
narrative  in  id.^  ii.,  pp.  197  et  seq. 


324       Essays  in  Western  History 

the  French-Canadian  trade  in  the  lead  district, 
for  we  find  that  up  to  18 19  several  American 
_^  .  traders,  who  attempted  to  go  among 
Canadians  the  Sauk  and  Fox  miners  and  run 
ousted  opposition  to  the  Canadians,  had 
been   killed. 

In  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  where 
Galena  came  to  be  planted,  there  were,  in 
181 5,  about  twenty  rude  Indian  furnaces,  the 
product  being  bought  almost  entirely  by 
French-Canadian  traders,  who  are  reported  to 
have  rated  a  peck  of  ore  as  worth  a  peck  of 
corn.  The  same  year,  a  crew  of  American 
boatmen  attempted  to  go  up  Fever  River  by 
water;  but  the  Indians  prevented  them,  fear- 
ing the  cupidity  of  the  Americans,  who  might 
become  excited  by  the  richness  of  the  mines 
and  attempt  to  dispossess  the  natives. 

In  1 816,  Colonel  George  Davenport,  agent 
of  the  American  Fur  Company,  and  engaged 
Lead  a  in  trade  with  the  Sauks  and  Foxes, 
currency  erectcd  a  trading-post  on  the  portage 
between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Fever,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  latter;  but  he  soon  after  left 
and  went  to  Rock  Island,  where  he  settled, 
Davenport  is  credited  with  shipping  to  St. 
Louis  in  181 6,  the  first  flatboat  cargo  of  lead 
ever    avowedly    emanating    from    the    Fever 


Early  Lead  Mining  325 

River  mines;  it  was  used  in  payment  for 
Indian  goods.  Lead  in  those  days  was,  like 
fur,  quite  as  useful  as  currency  in  the  financial 
operations  of  the  Western  country. 

By  a  treaty  concluded  at  St.  Louis  August 
24,  1 8 16,  all  lands  lying  north  of  a  line  drawn 
due  west  of  the  southern  extremity  of  Lake 
Michigan  to  the  Mississippi,  were  granted  to 
the  Indians,^  except  a  tract  on  the  Mississippi 
River  five  leagues  square,  to  be  designated  by 
the  President.  This  reservation  was  intended 
to  include  the  lead  mines,  the  exact  location 
of  which  was  as  yet  undefined. 

In  18 19  there  appears  to  have  been  a  more 

1  To  the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  and  Potawatomis.  In  a  let- 
ter of  Governor  Ninian  Edwards,  of  Illinois,  dated  Belleville, 
September  13,  1827  (Washburne,  Edwards  Papers,  pp.  304- 
306),  and  addressed  to  President  Adams,  it  is  pointed  out  that 
the  Sauks  and  Foxes  relinquished,  by  the  treaty  of  1804,  all 
the  lands  between  the  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  rivers ;  and 
that  by  the  treaty  of  1816  the  United  States  gave  the 
greater  part  of  this  tract,  with  the  lead-mine  reservation,  to 
the  three  tribes  named.  Thus  the  Sauks  had  no  share  in 
this  gift  to  the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  and  Potawatomis ; 
neither  did  the  Winnebagoes  have  any  claim  in  it,  "  unless 
some  right  has  been  recognized  to  them  inadvertently  by 
the  United  States,  since  1816,  of  which  I  know  nothing,  but 
which  if  it  exists,  was  a  clear  and  palpable  violation  of  the 
treaty  with  the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  and  Potawatomis  afore- 
said, unless  their  consent  was  previously  obtained,  which  I 
do  [not]  suppose  was  the  case." 


326       Essays  in  Western  History 

general  movement  upon  the  lead  regions. 
That  year,  Jesse  W.  Shull,  Francois  Bouthil- 
A general  lier,  Samuel  C.  Muir,  and  A.  P.  Van 
movement  Metre  werc  either  trading  or  oper- 
ating small  smelters  in  the  district,  and  had 
taken  Fox  women  for  wives. ^ 

Colonel  James  Johnson  of  Kentucky  ^  came 
to  the  lead  mines  of  Fever  River  as  early  as 
1819-20,  and  did  some  mining  or  smelting,  and 
trading.  A  traveller  on  the  Mississippi  in 
1821  speaks  of  meeting  Johnson's  flatboats, 
loaded  with  lead.^ 

The  largest  discovery  of  lead  ore  up  to 
Johnson's  time  was  made  in  1819  by  the  Sauks 
and  Foxes  operating  a  mine  about  a  mile 
above  the  site  of  Galena.  Those  Indians  were 
members  of  a  band  led  by  "  The  Buck,"  who 
had  long  been  encamped  in  the  vicinity.*  It 
is  thought  that  the  lead  had  originally  been 
worked  by  Dubuque's  men,  but  that  after 
Dubuque's  death  (18 10)  the  natives  had 
taken  possession  and  continued  operations 
with    the    crude    furnace    plant    erected    by 

1  Hist.  La  Fayette  Co.,  p.  400. 

2  A  brother  of  Col.  Richard  M.  Johnson,  who  was  said  to 
have  slain  Tecumseh. 

3  J.  G.  Soulard,  in  Hist.  La  Fayette  Co.,  p.  402. 
*  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vi.,  p.  281. 


Early  Lead  Mining  327 

the  whites.     It  took   the   entire  force  of  the 

band  to  raise  the  enormous  nugget  which  they 

had  discovered,  and  they  were  very 

An  . 

enormous  proud  of  It.  The  Indians  expressed 
nugget  ^  strong  desire  that  the  find  should 
be  sent  as  a  present  to  their  Great  Father  at 
Washington ;  but  as  it  was  never  so  forwarded, 
it  is  presumable  that  the  traders  secured  it  in 
piecemeal,  in  the  course  of  traffic,  the  rate  of 
exchange  still  being  a  peck  of  corn  for  a  peck 
of  ore.  The  whites  afterwards  called  this 
mine  "  Buck's  lead,"  in  honor  of  the  chief  who 
operated  it ;  and  a  neighboring  lead  was  styled 
"  Doe's,"  in  remembrance  of  the  Buck's  favor- 
ite squaw.  The  estimate  was  made,  about 
1820,  that  up  to  that  time  several  millions  of 
pounds  had  been  extracted  from  the  Buck 
lead,  by  the  Indians  and  Dubuque's  people  — 
more  than  afterwards  taken  therefrom  by  the 
American  miners,  despite  the  fact  that  it  was 
one  of  the  richest  mines  in  the  region,  and 
came  to  be  worked  in  a  scientific  manner. 

In  June  and  July,  1 8 19,  Major  Thomas 
Forsyth,  United  States  Indian  agent  for  the 
Sauks  and  Foxes,  made  a  voyage  from  St. 
Louis  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  and  in  his 
journal  gives  us,^  upon  good  authority,  "  the 

1  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.f  vi.,  p.  194. 


328       Essays  in  Western  History 

number,  situation,  and  quality  of  all  the  lead 
mines  between  Apple  Creek  and  Prairie  du 
Chien."  Contractors  for  army  and  Indian 
supplies  were  at  this  time  frequently  passing 
the  mines,  on  their  way  between  St.  Louis  and 
Prairie  du  Chien,  and  Green  Bay  and  Missis- 
sippi River  points,  and  both  Indian  and  white 
miners  found  ready  customers  for  their  lead. 

Congress  had  in  1807  reserved  mineral  lands 
from  sale,  and  ordered  that  leases  thereof 
The  lease  should  be  granted  to  individuals  for 
system  terms  of  three  and  five  years.  But 
owing  to  Indian  opposition  and  the  intrigues 
of  Canadians,  operations  under  government 
leases  were  confined  chiefly  to  Missouri.  Else- 
where, men  operated  on  their  own  account, 
and  without  system.  The  first  lease  in  the 
Fever  River  country  was  granted  January  4, 
1822,  to  T.  D.  Carneil  and  Benjamin  John- 
son, and  Messrs.  Suggett  &  Payne,  all  of 
Kentucky.  Lieutenant  C.  Burdine,  U.  S.  A., 
was  ordered  to  aid  them  in  selecting  a  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  each  in  the  lead  region,  and 
to  protect  them  with  an  armed  force.^  But 
no  report  of  the  expedition,  if  it  were  ever 
undertaken,  appears  to  have  been  pubhshed. 

As  early  as  April  12  following,  a  lease  for 

1  Hist.  La  Fayette  Co.y  p.  402. 


Ea rly  Lead  Min ing  329 

three  years  was  granted  to  Colonel  James 
Johnson,  who  had  for  three  years  operated  in 
the  country  without  license.  He  immediately 
took  to  the  mines  a  number  of  workmen,  in- 
cluding some  negro  slaves,  together  with  a 
supply  of  good  tools.  Encamping  where 
Galena  now  stands,  and  under  strong  military 
protection,^  Johnson  began  operations  on  the 
most  extensive  scale  yet  known  in  the  lead 
country.  At  the  time  there  were  several 
French  and  Indian  settlements  on  the  Fever, 
the  former  being  engaged  in  trade  and  the 
latter  in  mining  and  smelting. 

There  now  flocked  thither  a  horde  of 
squatters  and  prospectors  from  Misso.uri,  Ken- 
A  horde  tucky,  and  Tennessee ;  while  many 
of  squatters  ^^^^  ^^^^  Southem  Illinois  via  Fort 
Clark  (Peoria)  and  the  old  Indian  trail  which 
was  afterwards  developed  into  a  wagon  road 
and  styled  "  Kellogg's  trail."  For  the  most 
part,  the  newcomers  paid  small  attention  to 
Congressional  enactments.  The  lessees  not 
being  supported  in  their  rights,  protracted 
disputes  ensued,  many  of  them  disastrous  to 
all  concerned.  In  1822  there  were,  as  we 
have  seen,  but  four  other  lessees  besides  John- 
son; and  in   1823  but  nine  were  added  to  the 

1  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vi.,  p.  272 ;  viii.,  p.  250. 


33  o       Essays  in  Western  History 

list  —  among  them  Dr.  Moses  Meeker,  who 
established  a  considerable  mining  colony, 
which  gave  great  impetus  to  the  development 
of  the  region.^  The  unlicensed  plants  could, 
however,  be  numbered  by  the  score.  The 
leasing  system  was  so  unsatisfactory  to  all 
concerned,  and  yielded  the  government  such 
scanty  revenue,  that,  under  act  of  Congress 
approved  July  ii,  1846,  the  lands  were 
brought  into  the  market  and  sold. 

It  appears  from  the  report  of  Lieutenant 
M.  Thomas,  U.  S.  A.,  superintendent  of  lead 
The  great  mincs,  made  to  Congress  in  1826,^ 
''boom''  ^^i^  there  were  in  the  Fever  River 
diggings,. the  first  of  July,  1825,  about  a  hun- 
dred persons  engaged  in  mining;  which  was 
increased  to  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  by 
the  close  of  August  the  following  year.  The 
agent  estimates  that  in  Missouri,  at  the  period 
of  his  report,  there  were  two  thousand  men  thus 
engaged  — "  miners,  teamsters,  and  laborers 
of  every  kind  (including  slaves)";  but  some 
of  these  were  farmers  who,  with  their  slaves, 
spent  only  their  spare  time  in  the  mines. 

1  In  Wis.  Hist.  Colls.,  vi.,  p.  271,  Dr.  Meeker  gives  an 
interesting  statement  of  early  affairs  in  the  mines  after  his 
first  visit  in  1822,  Another  valuable  account  is  in  Hist.  Jo 
Daviess  Co.,  Ill.y  pp.  448  et  seq. 

2  Hmse  Ex.  Docs.,  19th  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  ii.,  No.  7. 


Early  Lead  Mining  331 

In  1827  the  name  Galena  was  applied  to  the 
largest  settlement  on  Fever  River,  six  miles 
from  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi.^  The 
heaviest  immigration  began  in  1829,  and  from 
that  time  forward  the  history  of  the  lead 
country  is  familiar. 

What  had  particularly  assisted  the  later 
development  of  the  Fever  River  region,  after 
Spanish  ^^^  Indians  had  been  quieted,  was  the 
claimants  fact  that  on  the  west  side  of  the 
ejected  Mississippi  the  mines  were  held  to  be 
private  property,  and  prospectors  were  warned 
off.  In  1832  the  United  States  War  Depart- 
ment asserted  the  right  of  the  general  govern- 
ment to  the  tract  granted  by  Spain  to  Dubuque, 
and  Lieutenant  Jefferson  Davis  was  sent  from 
Fort  Crawford  with  a  detail  of  infantry  to  eject 
from  **  the  Spanish  mines  "  all  settlers  claiming 
title  from  Spain.  There  was  much  dispute  as  to 
the  right  of  the  government  to  so  act,  but  Con- 
gress ignored  the  claims  of  the  settlers,  and  the 
lands  being  placed  on  the  market  were  regu- 
larly sold.  Many  years  after,  a  test  case  was 
decided  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court; 
and  the  appellants  —  the  heirs  of  Auguste 
Chouteau  and  John  Mullamphy  of  St.  Louis, 

1  The  river  is  not  now  navigable,  owing  to  heavy  deposits 
of  soil  worked  down  from  the  limestone  bluffs. 


332       Essays  in  Western  History 

who  claimed  to  have,  in  1804,  purchased  a  cer- 
tain part  of  Dubuque's  tract  —  were  defeated. 
In  1833  mining  began  upon  an  extended  scale 
west  of  the  river,  the  Spanish  and  the  Indian 
titles  having  at  last  been  cleared. 


VIII 

THE  DRAPER  MANUSCRIPTS 


i 


VIII 

THE  DRAPER  MANUSCRIPTS 

DURING  the  past  decade,  the  Draper 
Manuscripts  in  the  library  of  the 
The  Wisconsin   Historical    Society    have 

collector  bccome  so  familiar  to  students  of 
Western  history,  who  have  cited  them  on 
hundreds  of  their  pages,  that  some  account 
of  the  man  who  collected  them,  and  of  the 
manner  in  which  he  amassed  this  now  cele- 
brated storehouse  of  historical  materials,  would 
seem  a  fitting  conclusion  to  the  present  volume. 

Lyman  Copeland  Draper  was  born  in  the 
town  of  Hamburg  (now  Evans),  Erie  County, 
New  York,  on  the  fourth  of  September,  1815. 
His  ancestors,  five  generations  before  him, 
were  Puritans  in  Roxbury,  Massachusetts;  his 
paternal  grandfather  was  a  Revolutionary 
soldier,  and  his  maternal  grandfather  fell  in  the 
defence  of  Buffalo  against  the  British  in  1813, 
while  his  father  Luke  was  twice  captured  by 
the  English  during  the  same  war. 

When  Lyman  was  three  years  of  age,  the 


33^       Essays  in  Western  History 

family  removed  to  Lockport,  on  the  Erie  Canal. 
Luke  Draper  was  by  turns  grocer,  tavern- 
keeper,  and  farmer,  and  as  soon  as  his  son 
Lyman  could  be  of  service  about  the  house, 
the  store,  or  the  land,  he  was  obliged  to  assume 
his  full  share  of  family  labor.  Up  to  the  age  of 
fifteen,  the  boy's  experiences  were  those  of  the 
average  village  lad  of  the  period  —  the  almost 
continuous  performance  of  miscellaneous  duties, 
including  family  shoe  repairing,  the  gathering 
and  selling  of  wild  berries,  and  occasional 
"jobs"  for  the  neighbors.  One  summer  was 
spent  in  acting  as  a  hod-carrier  for  a  builder  in 
the  village,  at  the  daily  wage  of  twelve-and-a- 
half  cents.  From  his  fifteenth  year  to  his 
eighteenth,  he  served  as  clerk  in  various  village 
shops.  During  this  time,  after  having  ex- 
hausted the  possibilities  of  the  village  school, 
he  added  to  that  meagre  curriculum  the  read- 
ing of  what  few  books  were  obtainable  by 
purchase  or  loan  in  the  then  frontier  settle- 
ment, and  thereby  established  a  local  reputa- 
tion as  a  youth  of  letters. 

The  lad's  taste  for  Revolutionary  history 
A  youthful  was  early  developed.  He  came  natu- 
passion  ^^\y  by  it.  At  Luke  Draper's  fire- 
side, the  deeds  of  Revolutionary  heroes  formed 
the  chief  topic   of  conversation.     There  were 


,  The  Draper  Manuscripts         337 

yet  living  many  veterans  of  the  Continental 
Army,  who  were  cordially  welcomed  to  the 
hospitality  of  the  Draper  household,  while  the 
War  of  1 8 12-15  was  an  event  of  but  a  few 
years  previous.  The  boy,  eagerly  listening, 
became  steeped  in  knowledge  of  the  facts  and 
traditions  of  Anglo-American  fights  and  West- 
ern border  forays.  It  was  in  after  years  im- 
possible for  him  to  remember  when  he  first 
became  inspired  with  the  passion  for  obtaining 
information  as  to  the  events  in  which  his 
ancestors  took  part. 

As  a  boy  he  neglected  no  opportunity  to 
see  and  talk  with  distinguished  pioneers  and 
patriots.  In  1825,  when  but  ten  years  of  age, 
he  saw  La  Fayette  during  the  latter's  visit  to 
the  United  States ;  and  in  his  own  last  days 
declared  he  held  a  vivid  recollection  of  the 
lineaments  of  that  distinguished  friend  of  the 
Revolutionary  cause.  Lewis  Cass,  DeWitt 
CHnton,  and  other  celebrities  of  the  day,  he 
also  heard  speak  at  Lockport.  Visits  to  the 
village,  on  various  occasions,  of  the  then  noted 
Seneca  chiefs.  Tommy  Jimmy,  Major  Henry 
O'Bail,  and  others,  were  to  the  young  enthusiast 
in  border  history  like  visitations  from  a  realm 
of  fancy.  La  Fayette  was  the  subject  of  young 
Draper's  first  school   composition.      His  first 


33^       Essays  in  Western  History 

article  for  the  press,  published  in  the  Rochester 
Ge7n  for  April  6,  1833,  was  a  sketch  of  Charles 
Carroll  of  Carrollton,  the  last  of  the  **  signers." 
One  of  the  first  historical  works  he  read,  was 
Campbell's  Annals  of  Tryon  County;  or^ 
Border  Warfare  of  New  York,  published  in 
1 83 1.  This  and  other  publications  of  the 
time  were  replete  with  lurid  accounts  of  bor- 
der disturbances,  well  calculated  to  fire  the 
imagination  of  youth. 

Peter  A.  Remsen,  a  cotton  factor  at  Mobile, 
Alabama,  had  married  Draper's  cousin  (1833). 
A  patron  of  Taking  an  interest  in  the  lad,  then 
learning  eighteen  years  of  age,  he  invited  him 
to  pass  the  winter  at  his  home.  While  in 
Mobile,  Draper  chiefly  occupied  himself  in 
collecting  information  regarding  the  career  of 
the  famous  Creek  chief,  Weatherford,  many 
of  whose  contemporaries  lived  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Alabama  metropolis.  These 
manuscript  notes,  laboriously  written  down 
seventy  years  ago,  are,  like  the  greater  portion 
of  his  materials  for  history,  still  mere  unused 
literary  bricks  and  stone. 

In  1834,  during  his  nineteenth  year.  Draper 

entered     the    college    at    Granville, 

Ohio,  now  styled  Denison  University. 

Here  he  remained  for  over  two  years  as  an 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         339 

undergraduate.  He  appears  to  have  been  a 
good  student,  but  was  compelled  from  lack  of 
money  to  leave  before  graduation.  Remsen 
had  now  returned  from  the  South  to  New  York, 
and  took  up  his  new  home  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Alexander,  Genesee  County.  Draper^s  father 
was  poor,  and  unable  either  to  help  his  son 
towards  an  education  or  to  support  him  in  idle- 
ness ;  it  is  probable,  also,  that  the  elder  Draper 
was  lacking  in  appreciation  of  Lyman's  unusual 
tastes.  The  young  man  was  undersized,  far 
from  robust,  and  entertained  aspirations  which 
appeared  only  to  fit  him  for  the  then  unprofit- 
able career  of  a  man  of  letters.  Remsen,  sym- 
pathetic and  having  some  means,  offered  him 
without  cost  a  congenial  home,  and  to  this 
patron  he  again  turned  upon  leaving  Granville. 
For  a  time  he  was  placed  at  Hudson  River 
Seminary,  in  Stockport,  his  studies  there  being 
followed  by  an  extended  course  of  private 
reading,  chiefly  historical. 

Doddridge,  Flint,  Withers,  and  afterwards 
Hall  were  the  early  historians  of  the  border. 
Doctors  The  young  student  of  their  works 
disagree  found  that  on  many  essential  points, 
and  in  most  minor  incidents,  there  were  great 
discrepancies  between  them.     It  was  in  1838, 


340       Essays  hi  Western  History 

when  twenty-three  years  of  age,  that  Draper 
conceived  the  idea  of  writing  a  series  of  biog- 
raphies of  trans-Alleghany  pioneers,  in  which 
he  should  aim  by  dint  of  original  investigation 
to  fill  the  gaps  and  correct  the  errors  then 
marring  all  existing  books  upon  this  fertile 
specialty.  This  at  once  became  his  controlling 
ambition.  He  entered  upon  its  execution  with 
an  enthusiasm  which  never  lagged  through  a 
half-century  spent  in  the  assiduous  collection 
of  material  for  what  he  always  deemed  the 
mission  of  his  life ;  but  in  the  end  he  had  only 
investigated  and  collected,  and  the  biographies 
were  never  written. 

From  the  Remsen  home,  Draper  began  an 
extensive  and  long-continued  correspondence 
Notable  ^'^^  prominent  pioneers  all  along  the 
corre-  Wcstcm  frontier  —  with  Drs.  Daniel 

spondents     ^^^y^^  ^^^  g^  p^  Hildrcth,  and  Colonel 

John  McDonald,  of  Ohio ;  William  C.  Preston, 
of  South  Carolina ;  Colonel  Richard  M.  John- 
son, Charles  S.  Todd,  Major  Bland  W.  Ballard, 
Dr.  John  Croghan,  and  Joseph  R.  Underwood, 
of  Kentucky;  ex-Governor  David  Campbell, 
of  Virginia ;  Colonel  William  Martin  and  Hugh 
L.  White,  of  Tennessee,  and  scores  of  others  of 
almost  equal  renown.  Correspondence  of  this 
character,  first  with  the  pioneers  and  later  with 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         341 

their  descendants,  he  actively  conducted  until 
within  a  few  days  of  his  death. 

In  1840  he  began  to  supplement   his    cor- 
respondence with  personal  visits  to  the  homes 
.^  of  pioneers  and  the  descendants  of 

itinerant      pioncers  and  Revolutionary  soldiers. 

interviewer     ^^    j^^^    ^^^^^    ^j^^^    ^^^    j^j^    purpOSe 

the  gaining  of  information  through  letters  was 
slow  and  unsatisfactory,  for  in  those  days  the 
mails  were  tardy,  unreliable,  and  expensive; 
and  many  of  those  who  possessed  the  material 
he  most  sought  were  not  adepts  with  the  pen. 
There  were  then  practically  no  railroads  in 
the  country  which  he  visited,  and  for  many 
years  the  eager  collector  of  historical  material 
travelled  far  and  wide,  by  foot,  by  horseback, 
by  stage,  by  lumber  wagon,  and  by  steamboat, 
his  constant  companion  being  a  knapsack  well 
laden  with  note-books. 

In  these  journeys  of  discovery,  chiefly 
through  sparsely  settled  regions,  Draper 
Pioneer  travelled,  in  all,  over  sixty  thousand 
hosfi-  miles,  meeting  with  hundreds  of  curi- 

ous adventures  and  hairbreadth  es- 
capes by  means  of  runaway  horses,  frightful 
storms,  swollen  streams,  overturned  stages, 
snagged  steamboats,  extremities  of  hunger, 
and  the  like,  yet  never  injured  nor  allowing  any 


342       Essays  in  Western  History 

untoward  circumstance  to  thwart  the  particular 
mission  at  the  time  in  view. 

Especially  before  1850,  many  of  those  he 
sought  were  far  removed  from  taverns  and 
other  conveniences  of  civilization ;  but  pioneer 
hospitality  was  abundant,  and  a  stranger  at 
the  hearth  a  welcome  diversion  to  the  dull 
routine  of  a  frontiersman's  home.  The  guest 
of  the  "  interviewed,"  the  inquisitive  stranger, 
who  was  generally  blessed  with  abundant 
leisure,  often  stopped  weeks  together  at  those 
crude  homes  in  the  New  York,  Ohio,  Ken- 
tucky, Virginia,  and  Tennessee  backwoods  — 
long  enough  to  extract,  with  the  acquired  skill 
of  a  cross-examiner,  every  morsel  of  historical 
information,  every  item  of  valuable  reminis- 
cence stored  in  the  mind  of  his  host;  while 
old  diaries,  letters,  account-books,  or  other 
family  documents  which  might  cast  sidelights 
on  the  romantic  story  of  Western  settlement, 
were  deemed  objects  worthy  of  acquisition  by 
exercise  of  the  most  astute  diplomacy. 

It  would  be  wearisome  to  give  a  list  of  those 
whom  Draper  visited  in  the  course  of  these  re- 
important  markablc  wanderings  which,  with  but 
interviews  f^^  lapscs,  he  made  his  chief  occupa- 
tion through  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
and  resumed  at  intervals  for  many  years  after. 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         343 

Only  a  few  of  the  most  notable  can  here  be 
mentioned.  Perhaps  the  most  important  in- 
terview he  ever  held  was  with  Major  Bland 
Ballard,  of  Kentucky,  a  famous  Indian  fighter 
under  General  George  Rogers  Clark  in  the 
latter's  campaigns  against  the  Ohio  Indians. 
Other  distinguished  border  worthies  who 
heaped  their  treasures  at  Draper's  feet  were 
Major  George  M.  Bedinger,  prominent  in  Ken- 
tucky as  a  pioneer  and  Indian  fighter ;  General 
Benjamin  Whiteman,  of  Ohio,  and  Captain 
James  Ward,  of  Kentucky,  two  of  Kenton's 
trusted  lieutenants ;  and  General  William  Hall, 
a  field  officer  under  Jackson  in  the  Creek 
War,  and  afterwards  Governor  of  Tennessee. 
Draper  also  met  in  this  manner  fifteen  of 
George  Rogers  Clark's  fellow-Indian  cam- 
paigners and  many  of  the  associates  and 
descendants  of  Boone,  Kenton,  Sumter,  Sevier, 
Robertson,  Pickens,  Crawford,  Shelby,  Brady, 
Cleveland,  and  the  Wetzels  —  all  of  these, 
names  to  conjure  with  in  Western  and  South- 
ern history. 

He  also  visited  and  took  notes  among  aged 
survivors  of  several  Indian  tribes  —  Senecas, 
Oneidas,  Tuscaroras,  Mohawks,  Chickasaws, 
Catawbas,  Wyandots,  Shawnees,  Delawares, 
and   Potawatomis.     Not  the  least  interesting 


344       Essays  in  Western  History 

of  these  were  the  venerable  Tawanears,  or 
Governor  Blacksnake,  one  of  the  Seneca  war 
captains  at  Wyoming,  who  served  as  such  with 
the  famous  Mohawk  chief,  Joseph  Brant,  and 
the  scholarly  Governor  William  Walker,  of  the 
Wyandots.  The  descendants  of  Brant  among 
the  Canada  Mohawks,  among  whom  Draper 
visited  at  much  length,  gave  him  an  Indian 
name  signifying  "  The  Inquirer."  Draper 
once  visited  at  the  home  of  Andrew  Jackson, 
and  had  a  long  conversation  with  the  hero 
of  New  Orleans.  At  another  time  he  was  the 
guest  of  his  old-time  correspondent,  Colonel 
Richard  M.  Johnson,  who  is  thought  to  have 
killed  Tecumseh.  Once  when  in  Kentucky, 
on  a  hunt  for  manuscripts,  he  saw  Henry 
Clay;  and  in  Ohio  laid  eyes  on  General 
William  Henry  Harrison,  —  but  he  had  no 
opportunity  to  speak  to  either  of  these. 

The  period  of  Draper's  greatest  activity  in 
the  matter  of  personal  interviews  was  between 
A  rich  1840  and  1879,  although  in  his  latter 
harvest  years  he  also  frequently  resorted  to 
that  method  of  obtaining  materials  for  history ; 
while  the  period  of  his  active  correspondence 
in  searching  for  information  was  ended  only 
by  death.  The  result  of  this  half-century 
of  rare  toil  was  a  rich  harvest  of  collections. 


The  Draper  Mamiscripts         345 

Upon  the  shelves  of  the  manuscript  room  in  the 
Wisconsin  Historical  Library,  the  Draper  Man- 
uscripts now  fill  four  hundred  folio  volumes.^ 
f  The  geographical  field  covered,  is,  in  the  main, 
from  the  Hudson  River  to  the  Wabash,  from 
Charleston  to  Louisville;  and  the  period,  from 
the  year  1742  —  McDowell's  fight  in  the  Val- 
ley of  Virginia  —  until  the  close  of  the  War 
of  1 8 12-15.  Some  of  the  material  bears 
upon  the  trans-Mississippi  region,  such  as 
the  papers  of  William  Clark  and  the  jour- 
nal of  Sergeant  Charles  Floyd  (Lewis  and 
Clark  expedition). 

The  classification  is  chiefly  by  the  principal 
border  heroes  or  pioneers  concerned,  for  we 
have  seen  that  Draper  collected  with  a  view 
solely  to  using  the  material  for  a  series  of 
biographies:  George  M.  Bedinger,  Daniel 
Boone,  Samuel  Brady,  Joseph  Brant,  Daniel 
Brodhead,  George  Rogers  Clark,  Jonathan 
Clark,  William  Clark,  George  and  William 
Croghan,  Josiah  Harmar,  William  Henry  Har- 

1  In  1857,  he  computed  that  his  material  comprised  "  some 
10,000  foolscap  pages  of  notes  of  the  recollections  of  warrior- 
pioneers,  either  written  by  themselves,  or  taken  down  from 
their  own  lips;  and  wellnigh  5,000  pages  more  of  original 
manuscript  journals,  memorandum  books,  and  old  letters 
written  by  nearly  all  the  leading  border  heroes  of  the  West." 
It  was  somewhat  added  to  in  later  years. 


346       Essays  in  Western  History 

rison,  William  Irvine,  Simon  Kenton,  Robert 
Patterson,  James  Potter,  William  Preston,  David 
Shepherd,  Thomas  Sumter,  John  Cleves 
Symmes,  Tecumseh,  and  Louis  Wetzel.  There 
are  six  volumes  of  data  relative  to  the  Meck- 
lenburg declaration  of  independence;  other 
volumes  contain  early  manuscripts  relative  to 
Alabama,  Georgia,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  New 
York,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  South  Carolina, 
Tennessee,  Virginia,  and  King's  Mountain; 
numerous  volumes  are  wholly  devoted  to 
Draper's  interviews  with  pioneers  or  their  de- 
scendants in  many  parts  of  the  border  States 
and  the  Middle  West.  It  should,  indeed,  be  ex- 
plained that  while  this  collection  is  rich  in  con- 
temporary documents,  in  bulk  these  constitute 
the  lesser  part  of  the  Draper  Manuscripts,  for 
the  old  frontier  heroes  were  neither  much  ad- 
dicted to  the  diary  habit  nor  fond  of  writing 
letters.  Much  the  larger  proportion  of  the 
papers  are  the  great  collector's  interviews  and 
correspondence  while  seeking  information,  all 
of  them  freely  interspersed  and  enriched  with 
his  critical  notes.^  These  laborious  methods  of 
investigation  furnish  an  interesting  and  instruc- 
tive study  to  historical  specialists. 

In  1 84 1,  while  in  the  midst  of  his  life-long 
task,  Draper  drifted  to  Pontotoc,  in  Northern 


The  Draper  Manuscripts        347 

Mississippi,  where  he  became  part  owner  and 
editor  of  a  small  weekly  journal,  the  Spirit  of 
A  M-  '  ^^^^  Times}  This  venture  not  proving 
sippi  financially  successful,  at  the  end  of  a 

episode  ^^^^  j^j^  partner  considerately  pur- 
chased his  interest,  giving  in  payment  the  deed 
to  a  tract  of  wild  land  in  the  neighborhood. 
There  came  to  Pontotoc,  about  this  time,  a 
young  lawyer  named  Charles  H.  Larrabee, 
afterwards  a  prominent  citizen  of  Wisconsin, 
where  he  became  a  circuit  judge  and  a  con- 
gressman. Larrabee  had  been  a  student  with 
Draper  at  Granville.  The  legal  outlook  at 
Pontotoc  not  being  rich  with  promise,  he 
united  his  fortunes  with  those  of  his  college- 
mate,  and  together  they  moved  upon  Draper's 
tract.  For  about  a  year  the  young  men  lived 
in  a  floorless,  windowless  hut,  a  dozen  miles  from 
Pontotoc,  the  nearest  post-office,  raising  sweet 
potatoes  and  living  upon  fare  of  the  crudest 
character.  In  the  summer  of  1842  Draper 
received  the  offer  of  a  clerkship  under  a  rela- 
tive who  was  an  Erie  Canal  superintendent  at 

1  He  left  Pontotoc  in  December,  1843.  Journeying 
leisurely  northward,  as  usual  visiting  pioneers  on  the  way, 
he  called  in  March  on  Andrew  Jackson,  at  the  Hermitage. 
In  a  letter  to  The  Perry  (N.  Y.)  Democrat,  dated  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.,  March  16,  1844,  he  describes  his  visit  and  re- 
lates his  conversation  with  the  ex-President. 


343       Essays  in  Western  History 

Bufifalo,  and  retraced  his  steps  to  the  North, 
leaving  Larrabee  in  sole  possession.  But 
the  latter  soon  had  a  call  to  Chicago,  and  fol- 
lowed his  friend's  example,  leaving  their  crop 
of  sweet  potatoes  ungarnered  and  their  land 
at  the  mercy  of  the  first  squatter  who  chanced 
along. 

The  following  year,  however,  Draper,  ill 
fitted  for  a  clerical  life,  was  back  again  in 
j^  ^  Pontotoc,  where  he  made  some  inter- 

haven  of  esting  "  finds  "  in  the  chests  of  the 
refuge  Mississippi  pioneers.  In  1844,  once 
more  adrift  in  the  world,  he  sought,  as  a  haven 
of  refuge,  the  Remsen  household,  then  near 
Baltimore.  The  Remsens  eventually  moved 
to  Philadelphia,  whither  their  protege  accom- 
panied them.  For  eight  years  thereafter. 
Draper's  principal  occupation  was  the  prose- 
cution of  his  search  for  historical  data,  always 
collecting  and  seldom  writing  up  any  of  his 
material.  Conscientious,  as  well  as  ambitious 
to  leave  nothing  to  be  said  by  later  writers 
upon  his  topics,  he  declared  that  he  was  not 
willing  to  begin  until  to  his  own  satisfaction 
he  had  exhausted  every  possibility  of  finding 
more.  Within  reasonable  limits  his  attitude 
is  commendable;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact. 
Draper  had  by  this  time  become  so  imbued 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         349 

with  the  zeal  of  collecting  that  he  looked 
upon  the  digestion  of  his  material  as  of 
secondary  consideration. 

During  his  life  in  Philadelphia,  he  added 
miscellaneous  printed  Americana  to  the  objects 
^^^^^  of  his  collection,  and  particularly  old 

in  his  newspaper  files,  for  he  found  that 
spectaty  ^-j^ggg  latter  were,  when  obtainable, 
among  the  most  valuable  sources  of  contem- 
poraneous information  on  any  given  topic  in 
history.  He  thus  gathered  at  the  Remsen 
home  a  library  of  prints  which  came  to  attract 
almost  as  much  attention  among  scholars  as 
had  his  manuscript  possessions.  It  was  a  time 
when  in  America  there  were  few  historical 
students  engaged  in  original  research;  as  a 
specialist  in  the  trans-Alleghany  field,  Draper 
stood  practically  alone.  George  Bancroft,  Hil- 
dreth,  S.  G.  Drake,  Parkman,  Sparks,  Lossing, 
and  others  displayed  much  interest  in  the 
Draper  collections,  which  several  of  them  per- 
sonally examined  and  publicly  praised.  They 
sent  him  encouraging  letters,  urging  him  to 
enter  upon  his  proposed  work  of  writing  biog- 
raphies of  heroes  of  the  border. 

In  1854,  Lossing  went  so  far  as  to  enter 
upon  a  literary  co-partnership  with  Draper  for 
the  joint  production  of  a  series  of  such  life  his- 


350       Essays  in  Western  History 

tories — Boone,  George  Rogers  Clark,  Sevier, 

Robertson,  Brady,  Kenton,  Martin,  Crawford, 

Whitley,    the   Wetzels,    Harmar,   St. 

Co-partner-    ^,    .      ;' 

ship  with  Clair,  Wayne,  and  some  others  being 
Losstng  selected  for  immediate  treatment,  each 
work  to  be  in  several  large  volumes.  The 
titles  of  the  several  biographies  were  agreed 
upon  at  a  meeting  in  Madison  between  Lossing 
and  Draper.  But  while  as  a  collector  Draper 
was  ever  in  the  field,  eager,  and  abounding  in 
shrewd  resource,  as  a  writer  he  was  a  procras- 
tinator,  and  nothing  was  at  the  time  done. 
Three  years  later,  he  developed  renewed  in- 
terest in  the  plan,  and  sent  broadcast  over  the 
country  a  circular  informing  the  public  that 
the  long-promised  work  was  at  last  to  be  per- 
formed ;  and  yet  naught  came  of  it. 

Nineteen  years  had  now  elapsed  since  Draper 
had  entered  upon  the  full  tide  of  his  career  as 
a  collector.  Up  to  this  time,  he  had  made  a 
collection  of  material  perhaps  in  all  essential 
points  nearly  as  valuable  as  it  was  at  his  death. 
His  accumulations  in  after  years  were  chiefly 
in  the  direction  of  minor  details.  Much  of  this 
class  of  matter,  in  obtaining  which  he  spent  a 
large  part  of  the  last  thirty-five  years  of  his 
life,  would  be  considered  as  unimportant  by 
historical    writers    imbued    with    the    modern 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         351 

spirit  and  practising  modern  methods.  Draper, 
however,  being  by  nature  an  antiquarian,  con- 
sidered no  circumstance  regarding  his  heroes 
as  too  trivial  for  collection  and  preservation. 
His  design  was  to  be  encyclopaedic ;  he  would 
have  his  biographies  embrace  every  scrap  of 
attainable  information,  regardless  of  its  relative 
merit.  More  than  once,  with  some  sadness  he 
confessed  to  the  present  writer  that  he  felt 
himself  quite  lacking  in  the  sense  of  historical 
proportion,  could  not  understand  what  men 
meant  when  they  talked  of  historical  perspec- 
tive, and  as  for  generalization  he  abhorred  it. 
Yet  his  literary  style  was  incisive,  and  some- 
times he  shone  in  controversy. 

"  I  have  wasted  my  life  in  puttering,"  he 
once  lamented,  **  but  I  see  no  help  for  it ;  I 
Pearinz  ^^^  writc  nothing  so  long  as  I  fear 
to ''go  to  there  is  a  fact,  no  matter  how  small, 
^^""  as  yet  ungarnered."     Draper  not  only 

feared  to  "go  to  press,"  but  even  refrained 
from  writing  up  his  notes,  literally  —  as  he 
often  admitted  —  from  an  apprehension  that 
the  next  mail  might  bring  information  which 
would  necessitate  a  recasting  of  his  matter. 
At  the  time  of  his  contract  with  Lossing,  he 
had  completed  some  twenty  voluminous  chap- 
ters of  his  proposed  Life  of  Boone  —  perhaps  a 


352       Essays  in  Western  History 

third  of  the  number  contemplated.  It  is  prob- 
able that  this  manuscript  was  written  before  he 
came  to  Madison ;  from  its  present  appearance, 
it  seems  certain  that  he  added  nothing  to  it 
during  the  succeeding  thirty-four  years  of  his 
life.  Of  his  other  projected  biographies,  it 
was  discovered  at  his  death  that  he  had  written 
no  more  than  a  few  skeleton  chapters,  here  and 
there. 

In  January,  1849,  the  Wisconsin  Historical 
Society  had  been  organized  at  Madison.  It 
Practically  ^^^  ^*  ^^^^  ^^^  ^  nominal  existence, 
founds  the  for  there  was  then  no  person  at  its 
Historical  scrvice  with  the  technical  skill  neces- 
Society  sary  to  the  advancement  of  an  under- 
taking of  this  character.  Larrabee,  Draper's 
old  friend,  had  drifted  to  Wisconsin,  and  was 
now  a  circuit  judge.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Society.  In  full  knowledge 
of  the  quality  of  his  friend's  labors,  he  success- 
fully urged  upon  his  associates  the  importance 
of  attracting  such  a  specialist  to  Madison. 
About  the  middle  of  October,  1852,  Draper 
arrived  upon  the  scene.  His  patron  Remsen 
had  died  the  spring  before,  and  the  following 
year  Draper  married  the  widow,  who  was  also 
his  cousin.  The  historian  was  then  thirty-seven 
years  of  age,  full  of  vigor  and  push,  kindly  of 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         353 

disposition,  persuasive  in  argument,  devoted 
to  his  life-task  of  collecting,  self-denying  in  the 
cause,  and  of  unimpeachable  character. 

The  story  of  his  really  magnificent  work  as 
secretary  and  executive  officer  of  the  Wisconsin 
Historical  Society  is  familiar  to  all  who  are  in- 
timately concerned  with  the  study  of  Western 
history.  It  has  been  told  so  often,  in  the  pub- 
lications of  that  institution  and  elsewhere,  that 
it  does  not  here  require  specific  treatment. 
Thirty-three  years  of  his  life  were  in  large 
measure  consecrated  to  the  service  of  the 
Society.  He  resigned  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1886,  turning  over  to  the  charge  of  his  suc- 
cessor a  reference  library  of  national  reputation ; 
while  the  ten  volumes  of  Wisconsin  Historical 
Collections  which  he  had  edited,  are  generally 
recognized  as  ranking  with  the  best  American 
publications  of  this  character.  But  not  least 
important  were  his  untiring  labors  in  the  face 
of  sometimes  bitter  opposition,  to  secure  an 
assured  official  support  for  the  institution,  which 
at  last,  after  weary  years  of  striving,  he  saw 
placed  on  a  strong  financial  footing  as  the 
trustee  of  the  State. 

Although  the  author  of  numerous  pam- 
phlets, of  articles  in  the  Wisconsin  Historical 
Collections^  and  in  encyclopaedias,  of  a  mono- 
23 


354       Essays  in  Western  History 

graph  upon  collections  of  autographs  of  the 
**  Signers,"  and  of  scattering  chapters  of  pro- 
King>s  jected  biographies,  and  the  editor  of 
Mountain  ^  fg^  miuor  publications  aside  from 
the  CollectionSy  Dr.  Draper  —  the  University 
of  Wisconsin  had  thus  honored  him  —  pub- 
lished but  one  important  historical  work: 
Kin^s  Mountain  and  its  Heroes  (Cincinnati, 
1881).  Unfortunately  for  the  publisher  and 
author,  the  greater  part  of  the  edition  was  soon 
after  its  issue  consumed  by  fire,  so  that  few 
copies  are  now  extant.  Aside  from  the  border 
forays  of  whites  and  Indians,  the  really  roman- 
tic portion  of  the  history  of  the  Revolution  in 
the  South  is  confined  to  the  Whig  and  Tory 
warfare  of  the  Carolinas,  which  was  first  fully 
treated  in  Draper's  volume.  It  was  well  re- 
ceived at  the  time ;  but  in  later  years  Winsor 
and  others  have  very  properly  criticised  it  as 
possessing  the  faults  which  were  conspicuous 
in  the  author's  methods:  a  desire  to  be  en- 
cyclopaedic, and  a  lack  of  proper  historical 
perspective.  But  even  with  these  faults.  King's 
Mountain  is,  as  a  bulky  storehouse  of  informa- 
tion regarding  the  Revolutionary  War  in  the 
South  obtained  at  first  hand,  a  permanently 
valuable  contribution  to  American  historical 
literature.  -   — 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         355 

The  reason  for  Dr.  Draper's  retirement  from 
official  life,  at  the  age  of  seventy-one,  was  the 
desire  at  last  to  write  the  numerous  biographies 
which  he  had  projected  so  many  years  before. 
His  physical  vigor  was  waning,  but  his  literary 
ambition  was  as  strong  as  in  youth.  Unfortu- 
nately for  himself,  he  had  accumulated  so 
Material  ^^^^  ^  flood  of  material  that  at  last  it 
beyond  his  was  bcyond  his  control ;  and  although 
ever  hopeful  of  soon  beginning  in 
earnest,  it  was  plain  that  he  contemplated  his 
task  with  awe.  In  his  nearly  five  years  of 
leisure  he  made  no  important  progress. 

''  Still  puttering,"  he  often  mournfully  re- 
plied, whenever  the  present  writer  inquired  as 
to  what  he  was  doing.  But  his  countenance 
would  lighten  with  boyish  glee,  as  he  continued, 
**  Well,  I  'm  really  going  to  commence  on 
George  Rogers  Clark  in  a  few  days,  as  soon  as 
I  hear  from  the  letters  I  sent  to  Kentucky  this 
morning;  but  I  am  yet  in  doubt  whether  I 
ought  to  have  a  Boston  or  New  York  publisher 
—  what  is  your  judgment?  "  It  had  ever  been 
the  same  story — always  planning,  never  doing. 
For  his  society  he  was  one  of  the  most  prac- 
tical of  men,  and  his  persistent  energy  was  re- 
warded by  almost  phenomenal  success.  But 
the  work  of  the  institution  was  pressing;  in  his 


35^       Essays  in  Western  History 

own  enterprises  he  could  wait  —  until,  like  the 
patient  cat  in  the  fable,  he  waited  too  long. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  August,  1 891,  the  doctor 
suffered  a  paralytic  stroke,  which  was  the  be- 
ginning  of  the  end.  Nevertheless, 
when  partially  recovered,  he  bravely 
returned  to  his  "  puttering,"  still  confident  that 
his  projected  series  of  a  dozen  huge  biogra- 
phies would  yet  leap  from  his  pen  when  he  was 
at  last  ready.  Thus,  full  of  hope,  although  phy- 
sically feeble,  he  toiled  on  until  again  paralysis 
laid  him  low.  On  the  twenty-sixth  he  passed 
quietly  to  the  hereafter,  his  great  ambition  un- 
attained,  his  Carcassonne  unreached.  Death 
had  rung  down  the  curtain  on  this  tragedy  of  a 
life's  desire. 

Of  stature  short  and  slight.  Dr.  Draper  was 
a  bundle  of  nervous  activity.  Almost  to  the  last. 
The  man  his  scvcuty-six  ycars  sat  easily  on  his 
himself  shouldcrs.  Light  and  rapid  of  step, 
he  was  as  agile  as  many  a  youth,  despite  the 
fact  that  he  was  seldom  in  perfect  health.  His 
delicately  cut  features,  which  exhibited  great 
firmness  of  character  and  the  powers  of  intense 
mental  concentration,  readily  brightened  with 
the  most  winning  of  smiles.  By  nature  and 
by  habit  he  was  a  recluse.  His  existence  had 
largely   been   passed   among   his   books    and 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         357 

manuscripts;  he  cared  little  for  those  social 
alliances  and  gatherings  which  delight  the 
average  man.  Long  abstention  from  general 
intercourse  with  those  with  whom  he  had  no 
business  to  transact,  made  him  slow  to  form 
new  acquaintances,  and  wrongly  gained  for  him 
a  reputation  of  being  unapproachable.  He  who 
had  a  legitimate  errand  thither,  found  hanging 
without  the  latch-string  of  the  fire-proof  library 
and  working  *'  den,"  which  was  hidden  in  a 
dense  tangle  of  lilacs  and  crab-trees  in  the  rear 
of  the  bibliophile's  home.  Access  gained,  the 
literary  hermit  was  found  to  be  a  most  amiable 
gentleman,  a  charming  and  often  merry  con- 
versationist ;  for  few  kept  better  informed  on 
current  events,  or  had  at  command  a  richer 
fund  of  entertaining  reminiscence.  To  know 
Dr.  Draper  was  to  admire  him  as  a  man  of 
generous  impulses,  who  wore  his  heart  upon 
his  sleeve,  was  the  soul  of  purity  and  honor, 
did  not  understand  what  duplicity  meant, 
loved  children  and  fiovvers,  and  was  sympa- 
thetic to  a  fault. 

If  not  a  great  man,  this  gentle  scholar  was  in 

.  many  directions  eminently  useful  to 

nentiy  use-   his  generation.     As  the  guiding  spirit 

fui  career     ^^  ^^  historical  socicty  which  he  made 

great,  he   was   in    his  day   incomparable;    as 


358       Essays  in  Western  History 

an  editor  of  historical  material,  he  did  most 
excellent  service;  and  undoubtedly  he  was  the 
most  successful  of  all  collectors  of  material  for 
American  border  history.  So  jealously  did  he 
guard  his  treasures,  however,  that  during  his 
lifetime  they  hterally  were  inaccessible  to  all 
save  himself.  Not  unnaturally,  from  his  point 
of  view,  he  deemed  this  great  mass  of  docu- 
ments and  notes  as  his  own  hard-won  quarry, 
the  working  of  which  was  to  be  done  in  due 
time.  Upon  his  death,  however,  the  great  col- 
lection was  found  to  have  been  willed  to  the 
archives  of  the  Society  which  he  loved  so  well 
—  so  many  bricks  and  stones  for  future  his- 
torical architects.  Coming  to  the  society  in 
a  sadly  chaotic  condition,  —  for  the  doctor's 
private  library  was  a  realm  strictly  guarded 
against  womankind,  and  his  own  methods  were 
the  reverse  of  orderly,  —  in  1892  they  were 
carefully  classified,  mounted,  and  bound,  thus 
making  them  available  for  all  comers. 

No  doubt  students  of  Western  history  will 
always  express  regret  that  Draper  found  it  im- 
Anen-  practicable  to  give  to  the  world  the 
during        important,  many-volumed  works    for 

monument     ^j^j^^     ^^^^     j^j^     ^^^^^    y^^     j^^^     ^^ 

eagerly  planned.  For  while  contemporary 
documents  are  alike  useful  to  all,  at  least  he 


The  Draper  Manuscripts         359 

could  himself  have  best  interpreted  the  multi- 
tude of  notes  and  interviews  which  form  so 
large  a  proportion  of  his  matter;  the  world 
has  in  his  death  lost  forever  a  mine  of  informa- 
tion and  a  wealth  of  judgment  on  controverted 
points  in  Western  history,  which  might  have 
illumined  his  pages.  But  if  more  fruitful  in 
printer's  "copy,"  possibly  he  might  have  been 
less  persistent  as  a  collector;  and  of  the  two 
classes  of  public  service,  if  we  were  to  choose 
between  them,  we  must  admit  that  the  Draper 
Manuscript  Collection  will  prove  through  gen- 
erations to  come  a  far  more  useful  and  endur- 
ing monument  to  its  founder  than  the  shelfful 
of  books  which  he  had  proposed  to  leave  as 
his  chiefest  legacy. 


INDEX 


I 


INDEX 


ABBOTT,    Samuel,    American 
Fur  Company  employee,  217. 
Alabama,  manuscripts  relating  to, 

346. 
Alexander,    Gen.    Milton    K.,    in 

Black  Hawk  War,  165,  166,  168- 

173,  183,  184,  189. 
Algonquian  Indians,  205,  208,  239. 
Allouez,  Claude,  Jesuit  missionary, 

209,  243-246,  265,  271,  273. 
American  Fur  Company,  172,  217, 

224,  227,  249,  262-264,  267,  271, 

274,  319.  324- 

—  Historical  Association  Report, 
69. 

A  tnerican  Historical  Review,  27. 
American    Home    Missionary   So- 
ciety, in  Wisconsin,  267. 

—  Mission  Board,  267. 
Anderson,  Lieut.  Robert,  in  Black 

Hawk  War,  145. 

Armstrong,  Perry  A.,  Sauks  and 
Black  Hawk  War,  144. 

Ashland  (Wis.),  12,  236,  273. 

Assenisipia,  proposed  state  of,  77, 
78.  .     . 

Assiniboin  Indians,  248. 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  224,  227,  262, 
263. 

Atkinson,  Gen.  Henry,  commands 
troops  against  Black  Hawk,  141- 
149,  156,  158,  i64-i74>  183,  184, 
190-194. 

Ayer,  Frederick,  Wisconsin  mis- 
sionary, 265,  267,  269,  270. 

BAD  AXE,  battle  of,  145,  188- 
192,  197,  log. 
Bailey,     Maj.     David,     in     Black 

Ballard,  Maj.  Bland  W.,  Kentucky 

pioneer,  340,  343. 
Bancroft,       George,       commends 

Draper,  349. 


Baraga,  Frederick,  Catholic  mis- 
sionary, 270,  274. 

Bay,  Chequamegon,  209,  210;  dis- 
covered, 236 ;  map,  273 ;  de- 
scribed, 242 ;  Indians,  240,  243- 
247.  259;  posts  at,  233,  252-256, 
266,  274  ;  historic  sites,  236,  273, 
274;  fur-trade,  247,  250-254,  259- 
264 ;  Catholic  mission,  245-247, 
270-273 ;  Protestant  mission,  265, 
270,  273 ;  French  commandants, 
252-254,  256,  303  ;  French  post 
dismantled,  258 ;  Radisson  and 
Groseilliers  at,  234-240 ;  Allouez, 
243-246,  271,  273  ;  Marquette, 
245-247 ;  Cadotte,  261-264 ;  War- 
rens, 263-265. 

— ,  Georgian,  204,  206,  208,  225,  239. 

— ,  Green,  9,  102,  103,  233. 

— ,  Keweenaw  (Mich.),  209,  242. 

— ,  St.  Charles.   See  Chequamegon. 

— ,  St.  James,  234. 

Bayfield,  Lieutenant,  264. 

—  (Wis.),  260,  264,  272. 

—  peninsula  (Wis.),  244. 
Beardsto\yn  (111.),  142,  144,  158. 
Beaubassin,    Hertel    de,     French 

commandant,  256. 

Beauharnois,  Charles,  Marquis  de, 
governor  of  Canada,  254,  256. 

"  Beaver,"  Lake  Superior  vessel, 
255- 

Bedinger,  Maj.  George  M.,  Ken- 
tucky pioneer,  343,  345. 

Bellin's  map  of  Lake  Superior,  252, 
256. 

Beloit  (Wis.),  166;  Free  Press, 
166,  195. 

Benton,  Francis,  discovers  lead 
mines,  309. 

— ,  Thomas  H.,  proposes  new  ter- 
ritory, 98. 

Big  Foot,  Potawatomi  chief,  141. 

Bill  Cross  Rapids  (Wis.),  242. 


364       Essays  in  Western  History 


Bismarck  (N.  Dak.),  96,  97. 

Black  Hawk  ( Makatairaeshekia- 
kiak),  Sauk  Indian  leader,  birth, 
118;  in  War  of  1812-1815,  122; 
hostile  to  Americans,  122-125, 
128;  makes  treaties,  125,  126; 
influenced  by  White  Cloud,  127, 
129;  massacres  Menominees,  131, 
132  ;  recruits  forces,  134  ;  invades 
Illinois,  139;  attacks  Stillman's 
detachment,  148-153  ;  harries  the 
border,  159-163  ;  retreats  to  Lake 
Koshkonong,  167-173;  flight, 
17^-178;  attacks  array,  179,  180; 
retires,  183-186 ;  sues  for  peace, 
187 ;  taken  captive,  193,  194 ; 
imprisoned,  194,  195 ;  travels  in 
East,  194 ;  death,  195 ;  charac- 
terized, 1 19-122,  196;  Autobiog- 
raphy, 120,  122,  124-126,  129- 
131,  133,  134,  140,  143,  149,  IS3, 
178,  1S2,  185,  191. 

Blue  Mounds  (Wis.),  142,  160,  162, 
164,  183  ;  mines  at,  307. 

Boilvin,  Nicholas,  Indian  agent, 
322,  32?. 

Boone,  Daniel,  Kentucky  pioneer, 
II,  28,  343,  345,  350;  Draper's 
Life,  351,  352- 

Boone  County  (111.),  106. 

Boonesboroujjh  (Ky),  10. 

Boone's  road  ( Ky.),  6,  278. 

Borup,  — ,  fur-trader,  264. 

Bouquet,  Gen.  Henry,  in  expedi- 
tion of  1758,  284. 

Bouthillier,  Frangois,  in  lead 
mines,  326. 

Bowman,  Capt.  Joseph,  accom- 
panies Clark,  20,  34,  38,  57,  62 ; 
Journal,  47,  51,  55,  58,  61. 

Boyd,  Charles  S.,  Illinois  pioneer, 
135- 

"Boyd  Papers,"  in  Wis.  Hist. 
CoUs.y  181. 

Boyd's  Grove  (111.),  135. 

Braddock,  Gen.  Edward,  284,  285, 
294. 

Braddock  (Pa.),  279. 

Braddock's  Road,  277,  279-285,  293. 

—  Run  (Pa.),  284. 

Brady,  Gen.  Hugh,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  184. 

— ,  Samuel,  Kentucky  pioneer,  28, 
343,  345,  350- 

Brant,  Joseph,  Mohawk  chief,  29, 
66,  344,  345- 

Breese,  Sidney,  Early  History  of 
Illinois,  301. 


Brodhead,  Daniel,  pioneer,  345. 

Brownsville  (Pa.),  22,  277-280,  283, 
288. 

Brunson,  Alfred,  visits  La  Pointe, 
263. 

Buck,  Sauk  and  Fox  chief,  326,  327. 

Buckley,  Cornelius,  discusses  Black 
Hawk  War,  166,  195. 

BufiFalo  Grove  (111.),  142. 

Burd,  Col.  James,  identifies  Brad- 
dock's  grave,  284,  285  ;  Journal, 
290. 

Burdine,  Lieut.  Clark,  protects  lead 
miners,  328. 

Burlington  (la.),  195;  Gazette,  196. 

Burnet,  Jacob,  Notes  on  Northwest 
Territory,  85. 

Burr  Oak  Grove  (Wis.),  162. 

Butler,  James  Davie,  "  Early  Ship- 
ping on  Lake  Superior,"  255. 

— ,  Mann,  History  of  Kentucky,,  \\. 

Butterfield,  Consul  W.,  History 
of  Nicolet,  207. 

Byron  (111.),  138. 

CADEAU.  See  Cadotte. 
Cadillac,  Antoine  de  La- 
mothe,  Sieur  de,  founder  of  De- 
troit, 216,  246;  governor  of 
Louisiana,  305  ;  searches  for 
mines,  306,  307. 

— ,  Jean  Baptiste,  Wisconsin 
pioneer,   241,  259-261. 

— ,  Jean  Baptiste,  junior,  261. 

— ,  Michel,  259,  261-264,  274 ; 
daughters  of,  263,  265. 

Cahokia  (111.),  12-14,  34-39,  42,  46, 
65- 

Caldwell,  Billy,  Potawatomi  chief, 
122. 

Calv^,  Joseph,  in  War  of  1812-1815, 
314- 

Camjjbell,  David,  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, 340. 

— ,  Henry  C. ,  "  Explorations  of 
Lake  Superior,"  209;  "Pire 
Menard,"  209. 

— ,  Mrs.  John,  Wisconsin  mission- 


^:^^^- 


'illiam  W.,  Annals  of  Try  on 
County,  N.  Y.,  338. 

Canada,  founding  of,  205 ;  con- 
quest of,  218,  257,  258 ;  boundary 
of,  81,  83,  204,  234;  archives  of, 
256. 

Carneil,  T.  D.,  in  lead  trade,  328. 

Carondelet,  Spanish  governor  of 
Louisiana,  319.  ' 


Index 


365 


Carroll,     Charles,    of    Carrollton, 

signer,  338, 
Carroll    County    (Ill.)>    106;    lead 

mines  in,  300. 
Carver,  Jonathan,   Western    trav- 
eller,   239,    244 ;     Travels,   309, 

310;  map,  309. 
Cass,  Lewis,  at  Chequamegon  Bay, 

244,  262  ;  at  Lockport,  337. 
Cassville  (Wis.),  142. 
Catawba  Indians,  visited  by  Draper, 

343. 
Cave    Hill    Cemetery,    Louisville, 

Clark's  grave   in,  71. 
Chajtar,  Winnebago  chief,  193. 
Champlain,  Samuel  de,  founder  of 

Canada,  205,  206,  231. 
Charlevoix,  Pierre  Frangois  Xavier 

de,  Histoire  de  Noiwelle  France , 

252,  307- 
Chequamegon  Point,  236,  240,  243, 

244,  252,  261,  262,  273. 
Chersonesus,  proposed  State  of,  77, 

78. 
Chestnut  Ridge  (Pa.),  282. 
Chicago,    105,    135-1371    141,    i93> 

228 ;    Times,  214. 

—  Historical  Society,  307. 

—  &  Northwestern  Railway,  175. 
Chickasaw     Indians,     visited     by 

Draper,  343. 
Chillicothe  (Ohio),  66,  83-85,  88. 
Chingouabd,  Chippewa  chief,  251, 

252. 
Chippewa,   proposed    territory    of, 

98  ;  boundaries  of,  99,  100. 

—  County  (Mich.),  93. 

—  Indians,  8,  39,  132,204,  206,  209, 
244,  245,  250,  252,  259-262,  265, 
266,  268,  272  ;  number  of,  255  ; 
language,  233,  269;  early  history 
of,  240-243,  253,  256,  273  ;  treaty 
with,  325 ;  removal  to  Odanah, 
269. 

Chouteau,  Pierre,  in  fur-trade,  312, 

Christino  Indians.     See  Crees. 

Cincinnati,  fort  at,  313. 

Clark,  Gen.  George  Rogers,  i,  3,  6, 
17,  72,  219;  early  life,  10,  11; 
plans  expedition,  17,  18 ;  in  Vir- 
ginia, 18  ;  recruits  forces,  19-25  ; 
Illinois  march,  25-28 ;  captures 
Kaskaskia,  28-32,  219;  concili- 
ates habitants,  31-33  ;  treats  with 
Spaniards,  36-38  ;  conciliates  In- 
dians, 38-40  ;  attempts  to  capture, 
42-44;  march  to  Vincennes,  47- 


Clark,  Gen.  Geo.  Rogers  {cont''d). 
54  ;  letter  to  inhabitants,  54-56  ; 
attacks  Vincennes,  57-60;  cap- 
tures Vincennes,  61-63  i  re-in- 
forced,  64,  65 ;  returns  to  Louis- 
ville, 65  ;  expedition  of  1780,  66  ; 
fails  to  capture  Detroit,  66 ;  fail- 
ure of  powers,  67  ;  proposed  for 
Western  exploration,  67,  68; 
plans  filibustering  expedition,  68- 
70;  Indian  campaigns  of,  343; 
later  years,  70,  71 ;  manuscripts 
concerning,   345  ;   Biography  qfy 

350- 

Clark,  Maj.  Jonathan,  62,  345. 

— ,  William,  68 ;  papers  of,  345. 

-(111.),  142. 

Clarksville  (Ind.),  70. 

Clay,  Henry,  Draper  sees,  344. 

Cleveland,  Moses,  pioneer,  343. 

Clinton,  DeWitt,  at  Lockport,  337'. 

Company  of  the  West,  for  Louisi- 
ana, 306. 

Congregational ists,  in  Wisconsin, 
267-269, 

Congress  of  Confederation,  plans 
Western  States,  76-79,  82. 

—  of  United  States,  adjusts  terri- 
torial boundaries,  81-93,  96,  loi, 
104-109;  sells  lead  mines,  331; 
A  finals,  96 ;  Secret  Journals,  77. 

Congressional  Docictttents,  330. 

Connecticut  cedes  Western  terri- 
tory, 80. 

Cook,  Samuel  F.,  Drummond 
Island,  223, 

Copper  mines,  early  French,  234, 
254-256,  303. 

Cornstalk,  Shawnee  chief,  6,  7. 

Cottage  Grove  (Wis.),  175. 

Coureurs  de  bois,  204,  212,215,  247, 
257,  .301,  305.. 

Crawford,  William,  Indian  fighter, 
343,350-.    . 

Cree  (Chnstmo)  Indians,  236,  248. 

Creek,  Boyd's  (Wis.),  236. 

— ,  Catfish  (Mo. ),  320. 

— ,  Fish  (West  Va.),  it. 

— ,  French  (Ontario),  206,  225. 

— ,  Indian  (111.),  136,  157,  160. 

— ,  Redstone  (Pa.),  278,  280,  288. 

— ,  Sycamore  (111.),  140,  148,  197. 

— ,  Turtle  (Pa.),  279,  284,  294. 

— ,  Vanderventer  (Wis.)  243. 

— ,  West  Bureau  (111.),  135,  136,  142. 

— ,  Will's  (Md.),  278,  279,  289. 

Croghan,  Col.  George,  in  War  of 
1812-15,  222,  345- 


366       Essays  in  Western  History 


Croghan,     Dr.     John,     Kentucky 

pioneer,  340. 
— ,  William,  Kentucky  pioneer,  345. 
Crow  Wing  Reservation,  269. 
Crozat,     Sieur    Anthony,    granted 

Louisiana,  305,  306,  316. 
Cruikshank,     Ernest,    "Black 

Hawk's  record,"  122. 
Cumberland  (Md.),  279,  283,  286. 
—  Gap,  6,  278. 

"  T^AD  JOE,"  Illinois  pioneer, 

J--'     135- 
Dad  Joe's  Grove  (111.),  i35- 
Dakota  Indians.     See  Sioux. 
Davenport,    Col.     George,     early 

trader,  324. 
Davidson,  John  Nelson,  "Missions 

on  Chequamegon  Bay,"  265,  267, 

268 ;   Unnamed  Wisconsin,  266. 

—  and  Struve,  History  of  Illinois, 
96. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  144,  145,  194 ;  at  lead 
mines,   331. 

—  County  (Iowa),  195. 

—  farm  (111.),  in  Black  Hawk  War, 
157,  160. 

Decorah,    One-eyed,     Winnebago 

chief,  193,  194. 
Defiance  (Wis.),  142. 
Delaware      Indians,      visited      by 

Draper,  343. 
De  Leyba,  Francisco,  Spanish  gov- 
ernor of  Louisiana,  37. 
De  risle,  Guillaume,  map  of,  252, 

305- 
— ,  1  .e  Gardeur,  searches  for  mines, 

30^,  307. 
De  Louvigny,  ,  at  Mackinac, 

217. 
Delta  County  (Mich.),  93. 
Dement,  Maj.  John,  in  Black  Hawk 

War,  16 1,  167. 
Denison  University  (Ohio),  338,  339. 
Denny,   William    H.,  Memoir  of 

Maj.  Ebenezer  Denny,  30. 
De  Pere  (Wis.),  246,  247. 
De  Renault,  Philippe  Francois,  in 

Illinois,  306,  307. 
Detroit,  founded,  305  ;  French  post, 

216,  246,  251  ;  British  post,  8,  12- 

14,  27,  40,  63,   225;  attack  on, 

planned,    19,    35,    65,    66,    219; 

American  city,  76,  85,  90,  97,  99, 

126. 
De  Villiers,  Louis  Coulon,  Sieur, 

French  ofl&cer,  288. 


Dewitt,  Abraham  B.,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  144. 

Diamond  Grove  (Wis.))  142. 

D' Iberville,  Pierre  LeMoyne, 
Sieur,  in  Louisiana,  303. 

Dixon,  John,  in  Black  Hawk  War, 
135- 

-(111),  105. 

Dixon's  Ferry,  135 ;  rendezvous  in 
Black  Hawk  War,  136,  142,  147, 
152,  156,  162,  163,  166,  172,  194. 

Doddridge,  Joseph,  border  histo- 
rian, 339. 

DodgCj  Henry,  governor  of  Wis- 
consin, 106 ;  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  160-169,  171-174,  179,  184, 
189,  191. 

—  County  (Wis.),  174- 

Dodgeville  (Wis.),  136,  142. 

Dorr  County  (Wis.),  93. 

Doughty,    Major  ,    built    Fort 

Washington,  313. 

Doty,  James  Duane,  early  Wiscon- 
sin leader,  97-101,  262 ;  manu- 
scripts of,  98. 

Drake,  Dr.  Daniel,  pioneer  his- 
torian, 340. 

— ,  S.  G. ,  American  historian,  349. 

Draper,  Luke,  336,  339. 

— ,  Lyman  Copelaud,  ancestors, 
333;  eariy  life,  335-338  ;  interest 
in  the  Revolution,  336,  337 ;  at 
Mobile,  338  ;  in  college,  338,  339; 
designs  pioneer  biographies,  339, 
3ijo;  correspondence,  340,  341; 
itmeraries,  341-343  ;  interviews 
with   pioneers,  342-344,  346;  in- 


terviews Indian  chiefs,  343,  3^4; 
in  Mississippi,  346-348  ;  in  Balti- 
more and  Philadelphia,  348,  349 ; 


a  collector,  not  a  writer,  348,  350, 
351;  founds  Wisconsin  Histori- 
cal Society,  352-355  ;  as  author, 
354;  retirement,  355  ;  death,  356; 
characterized,  356,  357;  bequeaths 
collections,  358;  Notes,  313; 
King's  Mountain,  354  ;  Draper 
Manuscripts,  27,  30,  60,  68;  de- 
scribed, 335,  345,  346. 

Drummond,  Robert  A.,  invents 
blast  furnace,  308. 

Duane,  James,  congressman  from 
New  York,  75,  77. 

Du  Bois, ,  works  lead  mines, 

314- 

Dubuque,  Julien,  works  lead  mines, 
313-315,  31.7-320,  326  ;  gets  grant 
from  Spaniards,  219,  331. 


Index 


367 


Dubuque  (la.)?  i44.  3oo.  302,  313. 

—  County  (la.),  lead  mines  in,  300, 
305. 

Ducharme,  Dominique,  in  War  of 
1812-15,  314- 

Dufour,  John  James,  Swiss  emi- 
grant, 313. 

Du  Luth,  Daniel  Greysolon,  247, 
248,  301. 

Duluth  (Minn.),  247. 

Dunbar,  Col.  Richard,  in  Brad- 
dock's  campaign,  294. 

Dunbar's  Camp  (Pa.),  294,  295. 

Dunleith  (Wis.),  314,  320. 

Dunmore,  Lord  John  Murray,  gov- 
ernor of  Virginia,  6,  7. 

Duralde,  Martin  Miloney,  applies 
for  mining  grant,  311. 

EARLY,  Capt.  Jacob  M.,  in 
Black  Hawk  War,  158. 

East  Meadow  Run,  286. 

Edwards,  Ninian,  governor  of  Illi- 
nois, 100,  325  ;  Papers,  100. 

Eldon  (la.),  195. 

Elizabeth  (111.),  mines  near,  315. 

Elk  Grove  (Wis.),  142. 

Equaysayway,  Chippewa  woman, 
261. 

Ewing,  Col.  W.  L.  D.,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  171,  177,  179,  189. 

FACENBAKER,  Geoffrey, 
Pennsylvania     farmer,     286, 
292. 
Falls  of  Niagara,  225. 

—  of  Ohio,  see  Louisville. 

—  of  St.  Anthony,  327. 

Fayette  County  (Pa.),  History  of, 

■2.C)\. 

Ferry,  Rev.  William  M.,  Mack- 
inac clergyman,  268. 

Fifield,  Sam.  S.,  Wisconsin  citizen, 
.236. 

Fire-arms,  Indians  learn  to  use, 
300,315. 

Flint,  Timothy,  border  historian, 
339- 

Florida,  expedition  against,  69. 

Floyd,  Serj.  Charles,  Journal,  345. 

Fonda,  John  H.,  "  Reminiscences 
of  Wisconsin,"  186. 

Ford,  Thomas,  History  of  Illinois, 
96,  120,  121,  183,  184. 

— ,  Worthington  C.,  Writings  of 
Washington,  75. 

Forman,  Maj.  Samuel  S.,  Narra- 
tive, 312. 


Forsyth,  Maj.  Thomas,  Wisconsin 

Indian  agent,  327,  328. 
Fort    Armstrong    (Rock    Island), 

125,  135,  \±i,  143,  14S1  i94>  195* 

—  Atkinson  (Wis.),  172. 

—  Chartres  (111.),  306. 

—  Clark  (111.),  location,  329. 

—  Crawford  (Wis.),  133,  144,  146, 
180,  181,  331- 

—  Cumberland  (Md.),  289. 

—  Dearborn  (111.),  137- 

—  Duquesne,  25,  288,  294. 

—  George  (Mackinac),  222,  223. 

—  Hamilton  (Wis.),   142,  168,  172. 

—  Holmes  (Mackinac),  223. 

—  Howard  (Wis.),  136. 

—  Jefferson,  on  the  Mississippi,  66. 

—  Madison  (la.),  134,  139. 

—  Massac  (111.),  25. 

—  Necessity,  279,  281,  282,  285, 
286,  288-292. 

—  Pitt,  5,  22,  23. 

—  Plum  River  (111-),  162,  166. 

—  Recovery,  82,  84. 

—  Sackville  (Vincennes),  surprised, 
57,  58;  besieged,  58-604  surren- 
dered, 61-63  '>  re-named  Patrick 
Henry,  62. 

—  Sumter,  1^5. 

—  Union  (Wis.),  164. 

—  Wayne  (Ind.),  42. 

—  Wilburn  (111.),  165. 

—  William  (Ont.),  253- 

—  Winnebago  (Wis.),  136,  171, 
172,  180,  182. 

Fortress  Monroe,  121,  194. 

Four  Lakes  (Wis.)>  168,  175,  176, 
178,  199. 

Fox  Indians,  9,  39,  116,  118,  134, 
143,  244,  245 ;  habitat,  246,  249, 
318  ;  war  with  French,  249  ;  with 
Chippewas,  253;  treaty  with, 
325;  own  lead  mines,  313,  318; 
work  lead  mines,  322-324,  326, 
327  ;  in  Warof  1812-15,314.  See 
also  Sauk  Indians. 

Fox's  Bluff  (Wis.),  163. 

Fox-Wisconsin  portage,  136,  171, 
232,  248. 

Franciscans,  at  Chequamegon,  272. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  U.  S.  peace 
commissioner,  71,  72. 

Franquelin,  Johannes  Ludovicus, 
map  of  New  France,235,  244,  252. 

Freeport  (111.),  105. 

French,  settlements  in  the  North- 
west, 12,  14;  furnish  firearms  to 
Indians,  300 ;  life  of  settlers,  14- 


368       Essays  in  Western  History 


French  {^continued'). 
17,    58,    215,    216,     226,    228; 
size  of  grants,  311;  favor  Amer- 
icans, 32,  33,  54,  56,  65 ;  as  lead 
traders,  323,  324,  328,  329. 

Frontenac,  Louis  de  Baude,  Comte 

Frontiersmen,  characteristics,  17, 
20-22,  137,  321 ;  Indian  name 
for,  28 ;  warfare  with  Indians, 
7,  9,  10;  French  fear,  18,  219; 
seek  new  land,  4-7,  10,  11,  72. 

Fry,  Jacob,  in  Black  Hawk  War, 
144. 

Frye,  Col.  Henry,  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  158,  165,  179. 

Fur-trade,  terntory  kept  for,  3,  72  ; 
French  in,  12-15,  27,  215,  216, 
315;  British  in,  8,  72,  203,  204, 
220-227,  256,  286,  305;  in  Wis- 
consin, 233,  234,  247-254,  259- 
265  ;  rivalled  by  lead  mining,  323. 
See  also  American  Fur  Company 
and  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

GAINES,  Gen.  Edmund  P.,  in 
Black  Hawk  War,  130,  131. 

Galena  (III.),  105;  named,  331; 
rendezvous  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  134-136,  142,  161,  164, 
165,  167,  170;  mines  near,  301- 
309.  315.  318,  321-324,  326,  329; 
Gazette,  100. 

Galissonifere,  Comte  de  la,  gov- 
ernor of  New  France,  256. 

Genet,  Charles  E.,. expedition  of, 
68-70. 

Georgia,  Genet's  expedition  in, 
69 ;  manuscript  relating  to,  346. 

Gibault,  Pierre,  Kaskaskia  priest, 

33)  34- 
Girty,    Mike,    British   agent,    141, 

159.  160.         ^ 
— ,  Simon,  British  scout,  66. 
Gist,   Christopher,  pioneer    scout, 

279. 
Gordon,    Capt.    Harry,    Journal, 

310. 
Gossehn,  A.  "H.^Jean  Ntcolet,  207. 
Grand  Portage  (Minn.),  225,  226, 

248. 
Grant  County  (Wis.),  lead  mines 

in,  300  ;  History  ^  316.  _ 
Gratiot,    Henry,    Wisconsin    pio- 
neer, 144,  160,  163. 
Gratiot's  Grove  (Wis.),  142. 
Gravier,    Father    Jacques,    Jesuit 

missionary,  304,  305. 


Great  Meadow  Run  (Pa. ),  290. 

—  Meadows,  286,  288,  289,  292. 
Green  Bay  (Wis.),  12,  15,  97,  loi, 

181,    210,     213,    225,    311,    328; 

Jesuit  mission  at,  233,  245-247; 

Advocate,  214;  Sunday  Messen- 

ger,  ■2.\i,. 
Greenville  (Ohio),  83,  84  ;  treaty  of, 

84,  224. 
Groseilliers,  Medard  Chouart,  Sieur 

de,   French    explorer,   207,    209, 

213,  300;  on  Lake  Superior,  234- 

239,    247 ;     in    Minnesota,    239, 

240 ;    returns    to    Canada,    241 ; 

deserts   to    English,    242.      See 

also  Radisson. 
Guis,  Monsieur  le,  describes  lead 

mines,  307-309- 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  212,  232. 

—  of  St.  Lawrence,  232,  240. 

HALDIMAND,  Gen.  Freder- 
ick,  governor  of  Canada,  314. 

Hall,  Benjamin  F.,  border  histo- 
rian, 339. 

Hall,  Rachel,  captured  by  Indians, 
160,  164. 

— ,  Rev.  Sherman,  Wisconsin  mis- 
sionary, 265-269. 

— ,  Sylvia,  captured  by  Indians, 
160,  164. 

— ,  Gen.  William,  governor  of  Ten- 
nessee, 343. 

— ,  William,  Illinois  pioneer,  160. 

Hamilton,  Henry,  governor  at  De- 
troit, 8,  40;  councils  with  In- 
dians, 9;  recaptures  Vincennes, 
40-42 ;  attempts  capture  of  Clark, 
42-44 ;  suspects  Vigo,  45  ;  sur- 
prised by  Clark,  51,  54-59  5 
besieged  by  Clark,  58-60 ;  treats 
with  Clark,  60,  61  ;  surrenders, 
61 ;  prisoner,  62,  63 ;  lieutenant- 
governor  of  (Quebec,  63 ;  gov- 
ernor of  Dominica,  63. 

— ,  William  S.,  early  lead  miner, 
142,  168. 

Hampshire  County  (Va.),  23. 

Hand,  Gen.  Edward,  Revolutionary 
officer,  23. 

Hanks,  Lieut.  Porter,  commandant 
at  Mackinac,  221,  224. 

Harmar,  Gen.  Josiah,  pioneer  sol- 
dier, 345,  350. 

Harney,  Maj.  William  S.,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  146. 

Harrison,  WiUiam  Henry,  82,  344, 
346. 


Index 


369 


Harrodsburg  (Ky.),  10. 

Hebberd,  S.  S.,   Wisconsin  under 

French  Dominion,  249. 
Helena  (Wis.),  183- 
Helm,   Leonard,   Clark's    captain, 

20,  34,  38,  4i).6o,  63. 
Hennepin,  Louis,  French  explorer, 

248  ;  map  of,  301. 

-  (111.).    T42. 

Henry, ,  at  Vmcennes,  41. 

— ,  Alexander,  fur-trader,  255,  258- 

260;    Travels  and  Adventures, 

246,  258,  259. 
— ,  Daniel,  describes  Clark's  cam- 
paign, 30. 
— ,  Maj.  James  D.,  m  Black  Hawk 

War,  144,  158,  165,  166,  169, 171- 

174,  182-184,  189-191. 
— ,  Patrick,   governor  of  Virginia, 

18,  22,  23,  26,  36,  62-64. 
Herculaneum  (Mo.),  shot  tower  at, 

322. 
Hermitage,  Jackson's  home,  346. 
Hildreth,      Richard,       commends 

Draper,  349. 
— ,  S.  P.,  pioneer,  340. 
Holderman's  Grove  (111.),  136. 
Holmes,  Maj.  Andrew  H.,  killed 

at  Mackinac,  222. 
— ,    Lieut.      Reuben,     in      Black 

Hawk  War,  187. 
— ,  W.  H. ,  explores  Lake  Superior, 

234- 
Hopwood  (Pa.),  281. 
Hough,    Franklin    B.,   American 

Constitutions,  91. 
Houghton  Point  (Wis.),  240. 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  208,  235, 

242,  255. 
Hulbert,  Archer  Butler,  Historic 

Highways,  135. 

Hunt, ,  fur-trader,  227. 

Hunt''s  Merchants'  Magazine,  302. 
Huron,  proposed  territory  of,  100. 

—  Indians,  258 ;  Jesuit  mission  to, 
208-210,  235,  239,  241-246;  vis- 
ited by  Draper,  343. 

Hustisford  (Wis.),  169,  173. 
Hutchins,  Thomas,  chart  of,  85. 

ILES,  Capt.  Elijah,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  158. 
Illinoia,  proposed  State  of,  77,  78. 
Illinois,  under  French  regime,  17, 
207,  306  ;  under  British  regime, 
3,  24,  32 ;  captured  by  Americans, 
28-42 ;  erected  into  a  county,  64, 
65 ;    made    a    territory,  92,  93 ; 


Illinois  {continued). 
made  a  State,  92,95,96;  boun- 
daries of,  99-101,  104-107,  no, 
166 ;  lead  mines  in,  162,  300,  302, 
306-310,  329;  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  130,  135-166,  193,  198-200; 
manuscripts  relating  to,  346. 

Illinois  Indians,  213,  245;  learn 
use  of  firearms,  300. 

Indiana,  under  British  regime,  3, 
40-42,  54-62 ;  made  a  territory, 
83,  84,  95  ;  territory  divided,  86, 
92,  93  ;  admitted  as  State,  93  ; 
settlers  of,  137. 

Indians,  hunting  grounds  of,  3,  6 ; 
harry  the  border,  6,  8,  10,  17,  22, 
28,  65,  66 ;  incited  by  British, 
X19,  120,  223,  323,  344;  relation 
to  French,  17,  34,  38,  320,  321; 
Clark's  methods  with,  38-40,  54- 
59,  65,  219.  See  also  the  sepa- 
rate tribes. 

Iowa,  included  in  Illinois,  306 ; 
made  a  territory,  107,  no,  195  ; 
historical  archives  of,  194,  195. 

—  City,  capital  of  State,  195. 

—  County  (Wis.),  lead  mines  in, 
300. 

—  Indians,  39. 

Iroquois  Indians,  enemies  of  New 

France,    216,    234;      war    with 

Hurons,  208-211,  239,  245,  246. 
Irvine,      William,     Revolutionary 

soldier,   346. 
Irving,  Washington,  Astoria,  226. 
Island,  Basswood,  in  Chequamegon 

Bay,  252. 
— ,  Bois  Blanc,  99,  219. 
— ,  Corn,  Clark's  rendezvous,  24, 70. 
— ,  Drummond's,  99,  223. 
— ,  La  Pointe.     See  Madelaine. 
— ,  Mackinac,  204,    210,  217,  219, 

220. 
— ,  Madelaine,  240,  241,  249,  252, 

257,    260,   262,  266,  274;    early 

names  for,  252,  256. 
Islands,  Manitoulin,  206,  208,  210, 

246. 
— ,  Twelve  Apostles,  239,  244. 
Isle  La  Grosse.     See  Mackinac. 

—  Ronde.     See  Madelaine. 

—  Royale,  in  Lake  Superior,  234. 

—  St.  Josephs,  220,  222. 

TACKER,      Edward,     Mackinac 
J   missionary,  214. 
Jackson,  Andrew,  in  Creek  War, 
343;    message  on  admission   of 


24 


370       Essays  in  Western  History 


Jackson,  Andrew  {continued). 
Michigan,  90 ;  visited  by  Draper, 
344.  347- 

—  George  E.,  Missouri  miner, 
320-322. 

—  (Wis.),  142. 

James,  Maj.  Thomas,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  144. 

James,  Rev.  Woodbridge  L.,  Wis- 
consin missionary,  268. 

Jay,  John,  American  peace  com- 
missioner, 71,  72. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  addresses 
Clark,  67,  68  ;  proposes  Western 
States,  'j']^  78. 

-(Wis.),  174. 

—  Barraeks  (St.  Louis),  144,  194. 

—  Junction  (Wis.),  175. 

Jesuit    missions,   12,   28,    34,   204, 

207-211,  213,  216,  219,  220,  233, 

240,  242-247,  272. 
jfesuit   Relations,    208,    235,   243, 

244. 

Jobin, ,  Frenchman  killed,  252. 

Jo  Daviess  County  (111.),  loi,  106; 

lead  mines  in,  300,  308  ;  History 

^€/;  316,333.     ^       .        .    . 
Jogues,  Isaac,  Jesuit   missionary, 

207,  209. 
Johnson,  Benjamin,  in  lead  trade, 

328. 
— ,  Col.  James,  147;  in  lead  mines, 

326,  329. 
— ,  Col.  Richard  M.,  of  Kentucky, 

326,  340,  344. 
Johnston,    John,  at  Chequamegon 

Bay,  259,  260. 
JoUiet,  Louis,  212,  213,  235,  300. 
Jones,    Col.     Gabriel,     in    Black 

Hawk  War,  179. 
Jouan,    Henri,  "  Interpr^te  voya- 

geur  au  Canada,"  207. 
Joutel,   Henri,    early  French  trav- 
eller, 301. 
Jumonville,  Joseph  Coulon,  Sieur 

de,  French  officer,  288,  293-295 ; 

camp  of,  282,  293,  294. 
Juneau,      Solomon,       Milwaukee 

pioneer,  137. 

KAMINISTIQUA  (Ont.),  253. 
Kansas  City  (Mo.),  97. 
Kaskaskia  (111.),  early  French  set- 
tlement, 12-14,  306,  309 ;  cap- 
tured by  Americans,  24-32,  58, 
64,  219 ;  habitants  aid  Americans, 
33~3^»  44.  47  i  made  county  seat, 
65 ;  lead  market,  3 13. 


Kellogg's  Grove  (111.),  135,  142, 
161,  166-168. 

—  trail,  135,  329. 

Kenton,    Simon,    Indian    fighter, 

,,343,  346,  350- 

Kentucky,  settlement  of,  6-8,  1 1 ; 
raided,  10,  17, 18,  42,  46;  protec- 
tion for,  66,  289 ;  pioneers  of,  24, 
28,  137,  340,  342 ;  Genet's  expe- 
dition in,  69,  70 ;  manuscripts  re- 
lating to,  346. 

Keokuk,  Fox  chief,  119,  124,  125, 
134,  192,  195. 

Keweenaw  Point  (Mich.),  236, 
253. 

Kickapoo  Indians,  57,  244,  245. 

Kilboum  City  (Wis.),  193. 

Kingsbury,  Lieut.  Gaines  P.,  in 
Black  Hawk  War,  187. 

King's  Mountain,  manuscripts  re- 
lating to,  346 ;  Draper's  book  on, 
.354- 

Kinzie,  Mrs.  John  H.,  IVau  Bun, 
180. 

LABUXIERE,    Joseph,  attor- 
ney at  St.  Louis,  311. 
Lacassangue,    Michael,    Louisville 

merchant,  313. 
Lac  Courte  Oreille  (Wis.),  12,  241, 
262,  264. 

—  Flambeau  (Wis.),  12,  264. 
Lachine  Rapids,  206,  213. 

La  Fayette,  Marquis  de,  \'isits 
United  States,  337. 

—  County  (Wis.),  160  ;  lead  mines 
in,  300,  320;  History  of,  320, 
322,  326,  328. 

La  Hontan,  Armand  Louis  de 
Delondarce,  Baron  de,  early 
French  traveller,  301. 

Lake  Assiniboin,  226,  241. 

—  Chetek(Wis.),  12. 

—  of  the  Desert,  102. 

—  Erie,  6,  12,  74,  85,  86,  95,  216. 

—  Geneva  (Wis.),  136. 

—  Great  Slave,  225. 

—  Horicon  (Cranberry  Lake, 
Wis.),   174. 

—  Huron,  12,  76,  95,  99,  203,  205, 
214,  216,  246. 

—  Kegonsa    (First    Lake,   Wis  ), 

—  Koshkonong  (Wis.),  Black 
Hawk  at,  154,  159,  160,  168-172, 
183. 

—  Mendota  (Fourth  Lake,  Wis.), 
163,  164,  177. 


Index 


ZT^ 


Lake  Michigan.  203,  214,  219,  301  ; 
explored,  207,  231  ;  Indians  near, 
9 ;  trails  from,  136,  137 ;  as  a 
boundary,  76,  81,  84-89,  92,  93, 
96-102,  105,  232. 

—  Mills  (Wis.),  175. 

—  Monona  (Third  Lake,  Wis.), 
176,  177. 

—  Nipissing,  206. 

—  Ontario,  216. 

—  Peoria  (111.),  lead  purchased 
at,  302. 

—  Pepin  (Wis.),  303. 

—  St.  Clair,  76,  95. 

—  Sandy,  247. 

—  Shawano  (Wis.),  9. 

—  Superior,  as  a  boundary,  103, 
no,  232  ;  Indians  of,  8,  240-247, 
250  ;  explored,  206-209,  235-239  ; 
copper  mines  near,  234,  254-256  ; 
missions  on,  242-247 ;  com- 
merce of,  203,  214,  226,  247-256; 
map  of,  252,  264. 

—  Waubesa  (Second  Lake,  Wis.), 
176. 

—  Winnipeg,  226. 

Lallemant,  Jerome,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 235. 

La  Mothe.     See  Cadillac. 

La  Motte,  Monsieur  de,  finds  lead 
mines,  306,  309. 

Langlade,  Charles,  early  Wiscon- 
sin settler,  12. 

La  Points,  Story  of,  231-274;  ori- 
gin of  name,  243,  261  ;  locations, 
273.  6'^^a/j^Bay,  Chequamegon. 

La  Potherie,  Bacqueville  de,  French 
historian,  302. 

La  Prairie  du  Rocher,  43. 

La  Ronde,  Denys  de,  junior,  254- 
256. 

— ,  Louis  Denys,  Sieur  de,  252, 
254-256. 

Larrabee,  Charles  H.,  Wisconsin 
citizen,  347,  348,  352. 

La  Salle,  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur 
de,  247. 

—  (111.),  136. 

Laurel  Hills  (Pa.),  280,  281.  _  _ 
Law,  John,  grantee  of  Louisiana, 

306. 
— ,  John,  Colonial  History  of  Vin- 

cennes^  52. 
Lead  mines,  124,  136,  142,  144,  162, 

299-332. 
Le  Font,  Dr. ,  Jesuit,  at  Kas- 

kaskia,  34. 
Lena  (111.),  161. 


Le  Sueur,  Pierre  Charles,  early 
French  explorer,  248-252,  303-305. 

Lewis,  Freeman,  surveyed  Fort 
Necessity,  290. 

Lewis  and  Clark's  expedition,  68, 

345- 

Libby,  Orin  G.,  "  Chronicle  of 
Helena  Shot  Tower,"  184. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  144,  158. 

Linctot,  Sieur  de,  French  com- 
mandant, 253. 

— ,  Godefroy,  aids  Americans,  40. 

Little  Meadows  (Pa.),  286. 

Little  Thunder,  Winnebago  chief, 
174. 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  Story  0/ 
Revolution,  30. 

Logan,  Benjamin,  Kentucky 
pioneer,  11. 

Logan's  Station  (Ky.),  10. 

Long,  Maj.  Thomas,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  144. 

Lossing,  Benson  J.,  American  his- 
torian, 349-352- 

Louisiana,  under  French  regime, 
80,  299-309 ;  under  Spanish  re- 
gime, 37)  41.  45,  309-314,  319; 
retroceded  to  France,  320;  pur- 
chased by  United  States,  96,  320  ; 
map  of,  305  ;  mines  in,  299-331. 

Louisville  (Ky.),  20,  23,  35,  36,  64, 
65,711313-       ^ 

Louvigny.     See  De  Louvigny. 

Lucas,  Robert,  governor  of  Iowa, 
195. 

Lynn,    Capt.  ,   Revolutionary 

soldier,  23. 

McBRIDE,  David,  "Capture 
of  Black  Hawk,"  193. 

McCarty,  Capt.  Richard,  in  Clark's 
campaign,  61. 

McDonald,  John,  pioneer,  340. 

McDouall,  Col.  Robert,  command- 
ant at  Mackinac,  223. 

McDowell,  John,  Indian  fighter, 
345- 

McHenry  County  (111.),  106. 

McKee,  Alexander,  border  rene- 
gade, 66. 

McKenney,  Thomas  "L., History  of 
Indian  Tribes,  252,  260. 

Mackenzie,  Alexander,  explorer, 
232. 

Mackinac,  Story  of,  203-228 ;  me- 
ridian of,  86,  92,  iLo;  French 
post,  203,  214,  2i6-2i8,  248,  25s; 


372       Essays  in  Western  History 


Mackinac,  Story  of  {continued). 
British,  12-14,  203,  218-220,  314; 
American,  203,  220-224,  262  ;  mis- 
sions at,  246,  247,  265,  268 ;  fur- 
trade,  211,  215,  224-227,  251. 

—  boats,  146. 

—  County  (Mich.)>  93>  102. 

—  Strait,  207,  217 

Mackinaw  City  (Mich.),  204,  217. 

Macklot,  J.,  early  shot-maker,  322. 

Madison  (Wis.)j  107,  163,  168,  175, 
177-179. 

Maiden,  British  at,  120,  123,  126, 
129,  132,  136. 

Margry,  Pierre,  Decouvertes  et 
etablissements  des  Frangais,  246, 
304. 

Marquette,  Jacques,  Jesuit  mis- 
sionary, 210-214,  235,  245-247, 
270,  271,  300 ;  journal  of,  213,  331. 

Martin,  Col.  William,  pioneer,  340, 

350- 

*'  Martin  Manuscripts,"  Canadian 
Archives,  256. 

Mason,  George,  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, 90 ;  Clark's  letter  to,  19, 
22,  30,  50,  64. 

Massachusetts,  cedesWestern  lands, 
80. 

Matson,  Nehemiah,  Memories  of 
SJiaiibena^  141. 

Mecklenburg  (N.  C),  Declaration 
of  Independence,  346. 

Meeker,  Dr.  Moses,  establishes 
mining  colony,  330. 

Menard,  Rdn6,  Jesuit  missionary, 
209,  242. 

Menominee  Indians,  9  ;  in  War  of 
1812-1815,  314  ;  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  131,  132,  141,  181;  mission 
to,  272. 

Merriam,  Adj. ,  in  Black  Hawk 

War,   174. 

Matropotamia,  proposed  State  of, 
77.  78-     . 

Miami  Indians,  39,  75,  241;,  302. 

Michilliraackinac.     See  Mackinac. 

Michigan,  under  British  regime,  3, 
40 ;  as  territory,  86,  87,  95-98, 
108,  136,  142,  154,  157 ;  State  pro- 
posed, 76 ;  State  erected,  91 ; 
upper  peninsula  of,  90-94,  100, 
102,  104;  boundaries  of,  88-104, 
236 ;  Indians  of,  227 ;  Herald, 
100;  Pioneer  Collections,  312. 

Michigania,  proposed  State  of,  77, 
78. 

Middleport  (Wis.),  270,  274. 


Mille  Lac  region,  236,  240,  248, 

Miller,  John  S.,  early  lead  miner, 
321,  322. 

Mills,  David,  Report  on  Bounda- 
ries of  Ontario,  301. 

Milwaukee,  12,  135. 

Mineral  Point  (Wis.),  134, 136,  142. 

Minnesota,  explored,  239,  240;  as 
a  territory,  109-111;  boundaries 
of,  235,  247,  248;  Indians  of,  8, 
18  ,  188,  250 ;  Historical  Collec- 
tions, 233,  240,  241,  243,  249,  250, 
252,  253,  256,  258,  259,  261,  262, 
264,  265. 

Missions,  Jesuit,  233,  240-247 ; 
Protestant,  265-270. 

Missouri,  belongs  to  Illinois,  306 ; 
lead  mines  in,  300,  305,  312,  314, 
320,  328,  330;  boundaries  of,  96, 
99,  104,  no;  Indian  purchase  in, 
116. 

Mitchell,  John,  map,  84,  85. 

Mohawk  Indians,  visited  by  Draper, 
343,  344- 

Monroe  County  (I1L)»  De  Renault's 
grant  in,  307. 

Montreal,  15,  225,  234,  241,  242, 
251,  252,  256,  261. 

Moore,  Charles,  "Discoveries  of 
Lake  Superior,"  209. 

Morgan,  Indian  chief,  119. 

Moundsville  (111.),  25. 

Mount  Braddock  (Pa.),  279. 

Mountraille  County  (Dak.),  96. 

Muir,  Samuel  C,  in  lead  mines,  326. 

MuUamphy,  John,  early  Missouri 
settler,  331. 

NASHVILLE  (Tenn.),  347. 
Natchez  (Miss.),  66. 

Neapope,  Sauk  chief,  132,  133,  139, 
178,  179,  182,  194,  197. 

Neiil,  Edward,  History  of  Minne- 
sota, zo^,  7,0s  \  **  History  of  Ojib- 
ways,"  243,  249,  256,  267. 

Nemacolin,  Delaware  Indian,  279 ; 
his  path,  279,  280,  286,  288,  289, 
294. 

Neville  and  Martin,  Historic  Green 
Bay,  233. 

Newark  \  111. ),  136. 

New  France.     See  Canada. 

New  Orleans,  27,  310,  344. 

New  York,  pioneers,  342 ;  manu- 
scripts relating  to,  346 ;  Colonial 
Documents,  255,  256;  Nation, 
226. 

Niagara,  fort  at,  251. 


Index 


373 


Nicolay  and  'R2iy,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, 138. 

Nicolet,  Jean,  French  explorer, 
206,  207,  231,  233,  234,  253,  300. 

Northwest,  discovered,  206;  taken 
for  France,  208,  249  ;  British  con- 
trol in,  224-226 ;  conquest  of,  3-72. 

North  West  Fur  Company,  224, 
225,  255,  262. 

Northwest  Territory,  boundaries, 
75>  76 ;  organized,  76-82 ;  divided 
into  States,  82-1 11. 

Noiie,  Robertel  de  la,  French  com- 
mandant, 253. 

O'BAIL,  Maj.  Henry,  Seneca 
chief,  337. 

Odanah  Reservation  (Wis.),  269, 
273- 

Ogden,  George  W.,  Letters  front 
the  West,  312. 

Ogle  County  (111.),  106. 

Ohio,  part  of  Quebec,  3  ;  Indian 
raids  from,  65-67 ;  State  organ- 
ized, 76,  84-86;  boundaries  of, 
88-92,  95,  101,  104,  IDS  ;  pioneers 
ofj  137,  340,  342 ;  manuscripts 
relating  to,  346. 

—  Company,  278,  279. 

Old  Mackinaw.  See  Mackinaw 
City. 

Oneida  Indians,  visited  by  Draper, 

^343-. 

Onontio,  Indian  name  for  French 
governor,  252. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  79-82,  84-87, 
93,  95,  101-106. 

Oregon  ( 111. ),  105. 

Osage  Indians,  39. 

Ottawa  Indians,  39,  132,  209,  210, 
234,  240,  241,  244-246;  reserva- 
tion for,  325. 

-{111.),  157,  IS8»  160,  165,318. 

PAQUETTE,  Pierre,  Wisconsin 
pioneer,  172,  173,  182. 

Parish,  Thomas  J.,  in  Black  Hawk 
War,  142. 

Parish's  (Wis.),  142. 

Parkinson,  Col.  Daniel  L.,in  Black 
Hawk  War,  142. 

Parkman,  Francis,  commends 
Draper,  349 ;  Conspiracy  of 
Pontine,  218;  Half  Centziry  of 
Conflict,  249;  Jesuits,  208. 

—  Club  Publications,  209. 
Patterson,     J.     B.,     edits     Black 

Hawk's  Autobiography,  120. 


Patterson,  Robert,  pioneer,  346. 

Payne, ,  in  lead  trade,  328. 

Pearson,  Philippe,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 212. 

Pelisipia,  proposed  State  of.  77,  78. 

Penicaut, ,  journal  of,  303,  304. 

Pennsylvania,  5,  19,  137;  as  a 
boundary,  j6,  79,  81 ;  manu- 
scripts relating  to,  346 ;  Histori- 
cal Society  Publications,  30. 

Peoria  (111.),  135,  142,  329;  De 
Renault's  grant  near,  307. 

Peosta,  Fox  warrior,  313. 

Perrot,  Nicholas,  early  French  ex- 
plorer, 301  ;  lead  mines  of,  30^, 
304- 

Perry  (N.  Y.),  Democrat,  347. 

Peru  (111.),  136,  142,  165. 

Pheasant  Branch  (Wis.),  177. 

Philadelphia,  79. 

Piankeshaw  Indians,  57. 

Pickaway  Plains  (Ohio),  7. 

Pickens,  Andrew,  South  Carolina 
pioneer,  343. 

Pictured  Rocks  of  Lake  Superior, 
236. 

Pike,  Maj.  Zebulon  M.,  Expedi- 
tion, 319,  320. 

Pirtle,  Alfred,  Clark's  Campaign, 
Aly  55- 

Pittman,  Capt.  Philip,  Settlements 
on  the  Mississippi,  311,  312. 

Pittsburg,  277,  288,  313. 

Platteville  (Wis.),  loi,  142. 

Point  aux  Pins,  Lake  Superior, 
255- 

—  St.  Ignace.     See  Mackinac. 
Polypotamia,  proposed  State  of,  77, 

78. 

Pepe,  Nathaniel,  Illinois  congress- 
man, 96. 

Portage  des  Sioux,  125. 

Posey,  Gen.  Alexander,  in  Black 
Hawk   War,   161,    165-172,    184, 

Potawatomi  Indians,  9,  39,  244- 
246 ;  in  Black  Hawk  War,  122, 
127,  132,  136,  139,  140,  148-154, 
159,  160,  166 ;  treaty  with,  325  ; 
visited  by  Draper,  343. 

Potosi  (Mo.),  mines  near,  306,  309. 

—  (Wis.),  mines  near,  304. 
Potter,  James,  pioneer,  346, 
Pownall,   Thomas,    chart    by,   85; 

Topographical  Description,  310. 

Prairie   du   Chien  (Wis.),    9,  212  ; 

French  trading  post,  12,  15,  40; 

in  Black  Hawk  War,  126,  132, 


374       Essays  in  Western  History 


Prairie  du  Chien  {^continued), 

144,  146,  181,  186,  188,  193;  lead 
market,  313,  322,  323,  328. 

Prairie  du  Sac  (Wis.\  180,  310. 

Presbyterians,  in  Wisconsin,  265- 
269. 

Preston,  Senator,  arranges  North- 
west boundaries,  102. 

— ,  William  C,  pioneer,  340,  346. 

Price's  station  (Ky.),  10. 

Prince  Society  Ftiblications,  209, 

Prophet.     See  White  Cloud. 

r^UASHQUAME,  Indian  chief, 

Quebec,  founded,  205 ;  early  ex- 
plorers start  from,  212,  231;  In- 
dians trade  at,  250 ;  province  of,  3. 

RADISSON,  Pierre  d'Esprit, 
Sieur  de,  French  explorer, 
207,  209,  213,  247  ;  in  Wisconsin, 
234,300;  on  Lake  Superior,  235- 
239,  243,  244,  273  ;  in  Minnesota, 
239,  240;  returns  to  Canada,  241 ; 
deserts  to  British,  242  ;  Journal, 
209,  23  s,  236,  240.  See  also 
Groseilliers. 

Randall,  Henry  Stephen,  Life  of 
Jejfferson,  78. 

Raudin,  Sieur  de,  in  fur-trade,  247. 

Raymbault,  Charles,  Jesuit  mis- 
sionary, 207,  209. 

Red  Cliff  (Wis  ),  248. 

Redstone.     See  Brownsville. 

Red  Wing  (Minn.),  250. 

Remsen,  Peter  A.,  cotton  mer- 
chant, aids  Draper,  338-340,  348, 
349;  death,  352. 

Reynolds,  Gov.  John,  in  Black 
Hawk   War,   130,   131,  141,   142, 

145.  157.  158.  162,  165,  170;  My 
Own  Tunes,  121,  131,  146,  151, 

^S7^  163,  171,  172,  182,  191. 
Ritner,    Lieut.    Joseph,   m    Black 

Hawk  War,  i8i. 
River,  Apple  (111.),   1351  142*  161; 

mines  on,  314,  328. 
— ,  Arkansas,  225. 
— ,  Athabasca,  204,  232. 
— ,  Bad  (Wis.),  269. 
— ,  Bad  Axe  (Wis.),  186-190. 
— ,  Bark  (Wis.),  169,  170,  172. 
— ,  Big  Miami,  66,  75,  81. 
— ,  Black  (VVis.),  209,  304. 
— ,  Blue  (Minn.),  304. 
— ,  Bois  Brul^  (Wis  ),  248,  249,  254, 

255. 


River,  Buffalo  (Wis.),  304. 

— ,  Catfish  (Wis.),  177. 

— ,  Chicago,  2^9. 

— ,  Chippewa  (Wis.),  304, 

— ,  Columbia,  204. 

— ,  Des  Moines,  134,  195. 

— ,  Embarrass,  49,  50. 

— ,  Fever.     See  (Galena, 

— ,  Fox  (111),  116. 

— ,  —  (Wis.),  39,  136,  234,  23s,  246. 
See  also  Fox- Wisconsin  portage. 

— ,  Galena,  lead  mines  of,  299,  302, 
304,  305,  3o8>  309,  3i5»  322-326, 
329-331. 

— ,  Grant  (Wis.),  lead  mine  on,  304. 

— ,  Great  Kanawha,  23. 

— ,  Holston,  settlement  at,  24. 

— ,  Illinois,  40,  116,  135,  136,  141, 
142,  154,  306  ;  mines  on,  307. 

— ,  Iron  (Mich.),  255. 

— ,  Iroquois  (111.),  155. 

— ,  James  (Va. ),  66. 

— ,  Joachim  (Mo.),  322. 

— ,  Kaskaskia  (111  ),  26,  28. 

— ,  Kentucky,  82,  313. 

— ,  Kishwaukee  (111.),  149,  154,  156, 
i57>  167,  199. 

— ,  Mad,  75. 

— ,  Maumee,  40,  75,  76,  85,  86,  89. 

— ,  Menominee  (Wis.)>  102,  103. 

— ,  Meramec  (Mo.),  lead  mines  on, 
306. 

— ,  Milwaukee,  9,  137. 

— ,  Mississippi,  explored,  207,  212, 
2i3>  235,  247»  248,  30O)  304,  305; 
French  control,  233  ;  French 
posts  on,  250,  303  ;  Spanish  set- 
tlements on,  6q;  Indians  on,  9, 
39,  65,  118,  123,  131,  134,  i39i 
140,  166,  174,  180,  i8s,  197; 
battle  upon,  186,  188;  fugitives 
cross,  191-193  ;  Clark  on,  25,  66; 
as  a  boundary,  79,  80,  95-97»  107- 
iio,  116,  232;  lead-mming  on, 
299-3332  ;  commerce  on,  143. 

— ,  Missouri,  96,  97,  99,  104,  118. 

— ,  Monongahela,  277,  278,  288. 

— ,  Montreal,  102,  103,  236. 

— ,  Muskingum,  71. 

— ,  Ohio,  as  a  boundary,  3,  5,  6,  17, 
18,  76,  79,  81,  82,  92 ;  settlements 
on,  8,  12  ;  Clark  on,  23,  25,  46, 
47 ;  voyage  down,  278 ;  lead 
transported  on,  313. 

— ,  Ottawa,  206,  216,  225. 

— ,  Ozark,  23. 

— ,  Peckatonica  (Wis.),  battle  near, 
160. 


Index 


375 


River,  Pigeon,  226,  232,  251,  253  ; 
early  name  for,  235. 

— ,  Platte,  204,  225. 

— ,  Platte  (Wis.)>  lead  mine  on 
304- 

— ,  Potomac,  278. 

— ,  Raisin,  battle  near,  85. 

— ,  Rock,  9,  135,  139,  154,  199; 
Black  Hawk's  village  on,  118, 
128,  196 ;  Winnebago  village, 
127,  140,  143 ;  settlements,  141, 
165  ;  pursuit  of  Black  Hawk, 
145,  156-159,  162,  171-175- 

— ,  Rum,  248. 

— ,  St.  Croix,  108,  no,  248,  249, 
254,  264,  303,  304. 

— ,  St.  Frangois  (Mo.),  mmes  near, 
306. 

— ,  St.  Josephs  (Mich.),  76,  249. 

— ,  St.  Lawrence,  206,  215,  241,  257. 

— ,  St.  Louis,  no,  247,  248,  251. 

— ,  St.  Mary,  99,  223. 

— ,  Sugar  (Wis.),  168. 

— ,  Thames,  battle  on,  122. 

— ,  Wabash,  12,  40,  46,  47,  51,  65, 
66,80,  81,  126;  drowned  lands 
of,  48,  49. 

— ,  White  Earth,  96,  97,  104. 

— ,  Whitewater  (Wis.),  170. 

— ,  Wisconsin  (Ouisconsin),  9,  154, 
199,  234 ;  Dalles  of,  188,  193  ; 
survey  of,  304;  Indians  on,  116, 
118;  Menard,  242;  French  post, 
302  ;  Black  Hawk,  170,  177,  180, 
183  ;  territory  named  for,  99. 

— ,  Youghiogheny,  286. 

Riviere  4  la  Mine.     See  Galena. 

Roads,  National  (Pa.),  279,  281, 
283,  285. 

Robertson,  James,  Tennessee 
pioneer,   343,   350. 

Rocheblave,  Philippe  de,  com- 
mandant at  Kaskaskia,  27,  30,  31, 
33.  36. 

Rochester  (N.  Y.),  Gevi^  338. 

Rockford  (III.),  105,  106. 

Rock  Island  (111.),  99,  118,  131, 
i35»   193.  303,  322;   settled,  324. 

—  Island  County  (III),  106. 

Rogers,  Lieut.  John,  in  Clark's 
campaign,  46,  62. 

Royal  India  Company  of  Illinois, 
306. 

ST.  ANGE,  Louis  de  Bellerive, 
Sieur  de,  commandant  of  Illi- 
nois, 311. 
St.  Clair,  Gen.  Arthur,  governor  of 


St.  Clair,  Gen.  Arthur  {continued). 
Northwest  Territory,  82,  350; 
Papers,    82. 

Ste.  Genevieve  (Mo.),  lead  market, 
312. 

St.  Francis  Xavier  mission.  Green 
Bay,  246,  247. 

St.  Ignace  (Mich.),  211,  214,  217; 
mission,  247.    6"^^ a/j^  Mackinac. 

St.  Louis  (Mo.),  37,  45,  46,  125, 
126,  143,  194,  311-313.  319.322- 
327;  Pastoral  Blait,  21^. 

Saint- Lusson,  Sieur  de,  takes  pos- 
session of  Northwest,  208, 249,259. 

St.  Paul  (Minn.),  no. 

St.  PhiHppe,  early  Illinois  settle- 
ment, 307. 

St.  Pierre,  Paul  le  Gardeur,  Sieur 
de,  French  explorer,  253. 

Sarp, ,  fur-trader,  312. 

Saratoga,  proposed  State  of,  77, 78 

Sauk  Indians,  habitat,  9,  39,  40, 
118,  119,  128,  136,  244-246,  310, 
318;  in  War  of  1812-15,  314; 
own  lead  mines,  313-318,  322- 
324,  326,  327  ;  treaty  with,  325  ; 
encroached  upon,  124,  128,  131, 
197;  massacre  Menominees,  131, 
132  ;  raid  the  border,  166-178  ; 
battle  with,  179,  180;  seek  peace. 
182,  183;  retreat,  183-188;  last 
battle  of,  188-192.  See  also 
Black  Hawk  and  Fox  Indians. 

Sauk  trail,  136. 

Sault  Ste.  Marie,  206-208,225,235, 
245,  249,  251,  253,  255,  256,  259, 
260. 

Scharf,  J.  T.,  St.  Louis,  3",  312. 

Schoolcraft,  Henry  B.,  Narrative, 
244,  252,  262  ;  Discovery  of 
Sources  of  Mississippi  River, 
313  ;  View  of  Lead  Mines  of 
Missouri  .1  314. 

—  County  (Mich.),  93. 

Scotch,  in  fur-trade,  225. 

Scott,  Gen.  Winfield,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  158,  193. 

Seneca  Indians,  visited  by  Draper, 
343- 

Sevier,  John,  Tennessee  pioneer, 

,    343.  350- 

Shaubena,  Potawatomi  chief,  122, 
141,  148,  155. 

Shaw,  Capt.  John, 'lead  trader,  323. 

Shawnee  Indians,  6,  122,  343. 

Shea,  John  Gilmary,  Early  Missis- 
sip>pi  Voyages,  303  ;  Charlevoix^ s 
Histoire,  307. 


37^       Assays  in  Western  History 


Shelburne,  Lord,  on  fur-trade,  72. 
Shelby,    Isaac,   Western    pioneer, 

343- 
Shepherd,  David,  pioneer,  346. 
Shore's  Landing  (Wis.),  236. 
Shot  manufacture,  322. 
Shreeve,  Henry,  lead  trader,  323. 
Shull,   Jesse  W.,   in  lead  mines, 

326. 
Shullsburg(Wis.),  142. 
Sinclair,   Patrick,     British    officer, 

218,  219,  223,  314. 
Sinsiniwa  Mound  (Wis.)>  162. 
Sire,   Joseph  A.,  lead  merchant, 

312. 
Sioux  Indians,  habitat,  8,  187,  210, 

240 ;  war  with  Chippewas,  244- 

248,  253  ;    in  Black  Hawk  War, 

131,    187,    £92,    197;   lead  mines 

among,  300. 
Smith,    William    R.,   History  0/ 

IVisconsin,  163. 
Smithsonian  Institution,  234. 
Soulard,  James  G.,  early  traveller, 

326. 
South  Carolina,  pioneers  of,  340  ; 

manuscripts  relating  to,  346. 

—  Ottawa  (111.).  136,  142. 

South    West   Fur   Company,  224, 

Spj^ord's  Farm  (Wis.),  160. 

Spaniards,  on  Mississippi,  69;  work 
mines,  314;  grant  land  to  Du- 
buque, 319,  331;  befriend  Clark, 
36-38.  .       . 

Sparks,  Jared,  American  historian, 
291,  349- 

"  Sp)eedwell,"  Lake  Superior 
vessel,   255. 

Spooner,  Abigail,  Wisconsin  mis- 
sionary, 268. 

Stambaugh.  Col.  S.  C,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  181. 

Stephenson,  Capt.  J.  W, ,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  164,  168. 

—  County  (111.),  106,  161. 
Stillman,    Maj.     Isaiah,    in    Black 

Hawk  War,  147-153,  xs'',  163, 
165. 

Stillman' s  Run.  See  Creek,  Syca- 
more. 

Stoddard,  Maj.  Amos,  SkctcJus  of 
Louisiana,  312. 

Street,  Gen.  Joseph,  Wisconsin 
Indian  agent,  132,  181,  193,  194. 

Suggett, ,  in  lead  trade,  328. 

Sully,  R.  M.,  paints  Black  Hawk's 
portrait,  121. 


Suite,  Benjamin,  Mklanges,  27a 

Sumter,  Gen.  Thomas,  pioneer, 
343,   346. 

Sylvania,  proposed  State  of,  77,  78. 

Symmes,  John  Cleves,  Ohio  pio- 
neer, 346. 

TALCOTT,  Capt.  A.,  surveyor, 
85,  89. 

Tawanears  (Governor  Blacksnake), 
Seneca  chief,  344. 

Taylor,  Col.  Zachary,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  146,  169. 

Tecumseh,  122,  127;  death  of,  326, 
344 ;  papers  concerning,  346. 

Tennessee,  66^  329,  340,  342  ;  manu- 
scripts relating  to,  346. 

Thomas,  Henry,  early  Illinois  set- 
tler, 135. 

— ,  Col.  John,  in  Black  Hawk  War, 
144. 

— ,  Lieut.  M.,  superintendent  of 
lead  mines,  330. 

Thompson,  Samuel  M.,  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  144. 

Throckmorton,  John,  captain  of 
the  "  Warrior,"   186. 

Thwaites,  Reuben  Gold,  "  Boun- 
daries of  Wisconsin,"  iii  ;  Hen- 
nepin^ s  New  Discovery  f  248 ; 
Father  Marquette,  214;  Story 
of  Wisconsin,  303. 

Timms's  Grove  (111.),  161. 

Todd,  Andrew,  trad«r  in  Upper 
Louisiana,  319. 

— ,  Charles  S.,  pioneer,  340. 

— ,  John,  county-lieutenant  of  Illi- 
nois, 64,  65. 

Toledo  (Ohio),  89. 

Tommy  Jimmy,  Seneca  chief,  337. 

Treaties,  Ghent,  122,  222,  224 ; 
Jay,  220,  224,  225 ;  Paris,  71,  8<3, 
220. 

Turner,  Frederick  Jackson,  "  Clark 
Manuscripts,"  27  ;  "  Corre- 
spondence of  Clark  and  Genet," 
69;  "  Fur  Trade  in  Wisconsin," 
225. 

Tuscarora  Indians,  visited  by 
Draper,  343. 

Two  Rivers  (Wis.),  12. 

UNDERWOOD,    Joseph     R., 
pioneer,  340. 
Union  (Wis.),  142. 
Uniontown  (Pa.),  279-281,  284,  295. 
United   States,   supreme  court   on 
lead-mining  claims,  331,  332. 


Index 


in 


VAN  METRE,  A.  P.,  in  lead 
mines,  326. 

Vaudreuil,  Marquis  de,  governor 
of  Canada,  217. 

Venango,  Washington  visits,  279. 

Verwyst,  Rev.  Chrysostom,  "  His- 
toric Sites  on  Chequamegon 
Bay,"  236,  240,  243  ;  Missionary 
Labors  0/  Fathers  Marquette, 
Minard,  and  Allotiez,  244,  270- 
272. 

Vevay  (Ind.),  founded,  313. 

Vigo,  Francis,  French  trader,  45, 
46,  313. 

Vincennes,  12-14,  18;  surrenders 
to  Americans,  34;  captured  by 
Hamilton,  40-42 ;  re-taken  by 
Clark,  45-63,  67,  219;  garrisoned, 
65 ;  seat  of  government,  83 ; 
meridian  of,  81,  93. 

Virginia,  5,  6,  10,  70,  yi,  342; 
Clark  in,  18,  19,  66,  67  ;  captures 
Northwest,  33,  34,  44,  45;  Ham- 
ilton sent  to,  62-64 ;  cedes  terri- 
tory, 80,  89 ;  occupies  forks  of 
Ohio,  288;  manuscripts  relating 
to,  346. 

VyABASHA,   Sioux  chief,  187, 

Waddam's  Grove  (111.),  r6r. 
Wakefield,   John    A.,   History    0/ 

Black  Hawk  War,  144,  155,  176, 

180,  183,  191,  193. 
Walker,    Gov.  William,  Wyandot 

chief,  344. 
Wallace,  ]..,  Illinois  and  Louisiana, 

305?  308. 
Wapello,  Fox  chief,  1 19. 
Ward,     Capt.     James,     Kentucky 

W pioneer,  343. 
arren.     Hooper,     early     editor, 
100. 

— ,  Lyman  Marcus,  early  Wiscon- 
sin settler,  263-265,  267,  270. 

— ,  Richard,  263. 

— ,  Truman  Abraham,  early  Wis- 
consin settler,  263,  264. 

— ,  William  Whipple,  264,  265  ; 
"  History  of  Ojibways,"  233,  240, 
258,  259,  261,  262. 

"  Warrior,"  Mississippi  steamer, 
186-188,  191,  197. 

Wars,  French  and  Fox,  249;  French 
and  Indian,  288  ;  Pontiac's,  259  ; 
Lord  Dunmore's,  6,  7,  11,  71; 
Revolutionary,  3,  5,  7,  14,  65, 
66,    219,    336,    337,    354;    with 


Wars,  French  and  Fox  {continued). 
Creeks,  343  ;  of  1812-15, 119,  122, 
131,  141,  221,  224,  262,  314,  337, 
345  ;  Black  Hawk,  115-200. 

Washliurn  (Wis.),  236,  273. 

Washburne,  E.  B.,  100,  loi,  164, 
307  ;  Edwards  Papers,  325. 

Washington,  George,  11 ;  in  French 
and  Indian  War,  279,  280,  285, 
286,  288,  292,  293,  295  ;  scores 
Hamilton,  63  ;  ends  Genet's  ex- 
pedition, 70 ;  proposes  Western 
States,  75,  76. 

— ,  proposed  State  of,  77,  78. 

—  City,  69,  78,  120,  194. 

—  Springs  (Pa.),  282,  293 
Watertown  (Wis.),  174. 
Waubojeeg,  Chippewa  chief,  260. 
Wayne,  Anthony,  224,  350. 
Weatherford,  Creek  chief,  338. 
West  Augusta  (Va.),  Clark  recruits 

in,  20. 

Wetzels,  Kentucky  pioneers,  28, 
343,  345.  350- 

Wheeler,  Edward  P. ,  authority  on 
La  Pointe,  233,  236. 

— ,  Rev.  Leonard  Hemenway,  Wis- 
consin missionary,  268,  269. 

Wheeling(W.  Va.),  22,  28. 

White,  Hugh  L.,  pioneer,  340. 

—  Cloud  (Prophet),  Winnebago 
chief,  126-129,  132,  133,  139,  140, 
143. 193 ;  village  of,  140,  144,  147, 
188,  194. 

—  Crane,  Chippewa  chief,  261. 

—  Crow  (Kaukishkaka),  Winne- 
bago chief,  160,  163,  164,  168- 
170,  172. 

—  Fisher.     See  Waubojeeg. 
Whiteman,  Gen.    Benjamin,  Ohio 

pioneer,  343. 

White  Oak  Springs  (Wis.),  142. 

Whiteside,  Gen.  Samuel,  va  Black 
Hawk  War,  145-147,  156,  158. 

Whitesides  County  (111.),  106. 

Whitley,  William,  Kentucky  pio- 
neer, 350. 

Whittlesey's  Creek  (Wis.),  236. 

Wilburndll.),  142,  165. 

Williams,  Capt.  John,  in  Clark's 
campaign,  61. 

— ,  M.  C,  Old  Mission  Church 
of  Mackinac  Island,  228. 

Williamsburg  (Va.),  34,  63. 

"Willing,"  Clark's  galley,  46,47, 51. 

Wilson, ,  fur-trader,  227. 

Winchell,  Newton  H.,  Geological 
Survey  of  Minnesota,  301. 


37^       Essays  in  Western  History 


WingvilIe(Wis.),  142. 

Winnebago  County  (Ill.)i  106. 

—  Indians,  habitat,  9,  39,  127,  173, 
318;  language  of,  182,  197;  in 
War  of  1812-15,  314  i  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  128,  129,  139,  148, 
154,  159,  163,  166-175,  180,  182, 
187,  188,  199,  200 ;  capture  Black 
Hawk,  193,  194 ;  agency  of,  322 ; 
claims  of;  325. 

Winnipeg  country,  232. 

Winona  (Minn.),  187. 

Winsor,  Justin,  criticises  Draper, 
354  ;  Cartier  to  Frontenac,  305  ; 
History  of  A  merica,  306. 

Winter, ,  early  Illinois  settler, 

Wiota(Wis.),  142,  168. 

Wisconsin,  topography,  232 ;  In- 
dians of,  8,  65,  209,  210,  227, 
244,  245,  250,  256,  300;  under 
French  regime,  12,  207,  231,  233  ; 
under  British  regime,  3,  39,  40, 
219;  organized  as  territory,  99, 
loi,  105,  no;  State  formed,  lois  ; 
legislature  of,  106- no;  boun- 
daries of,  92,  93,  98,    102,   104, 


Wisconsin  {continued.) 

105,  107-110,  236,  247;  in  Black 
Hawk  War,  136,  142,  162-200; 
missions  in,  242-247,  249,  265- 
273;  University  of,  177,  354; 
Historical  Society,  121,  194,  235, 
352,  353;  library  of,  335,  345, 
353  ;  Collections,  4,  78,  loi,  iii, 
122,  135,  136,  144,  i59>  161,  163, 
164,  172,  175,  181,  184,  186,  193, 
207-209,  226,  233,  234,  236,  249, 
253,  258,  265,  268,  272,  300,  302, 
303»  314,  316,  322»  323,  326,327, 
329,  330,  353  ;  Proceedings,  225, 
255- 

—  Heights,  battle  of,  179-181,  184, 
197,  199. 

Withers,  Alexander  S.,  border  his- 
torian, 339. 

Worthington,    Capt.    Edward,    in 
Clark's  campaign,  61,  62. 

Woodbridge,  Adj.  W.  W.,in  Black 
Hawk  War,  174. 

Wyandot  Indians.    See  Hurons. 


YELLOW  BANKS, 
162,  192. 


i39i    155, 


\,\^^A 


orr 


M£ 


r-..      OF 


Companion  volume  to  "  Down  Historic  Waterways  " 

On  the  Storied  Ohio 

AN  HISTORICAL  PILGRIMAGE  OF  A  THOUSAND 
MILES  IN  A  SKIFF,  FROM  REDSTONE  TO  CAIRO 

Being  a  neiv  and  renjised  edition  of  ^^  Afloat  on  the  Ohioy" 
nvith  nenv  Preface  and  full-page  illustrations  from  photographs 

THIS  trip  was  undertaken  by  Mr.  Thwaites 
some  years  ago,  with  the  idea  of  gathering 
local  color  for  his  studies  of  Western  history.  The 
Ohio  River  was  an  important  factor  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  West.  He  therefore  wished  to  know 
intimately  the  great  waterway  in  its  various  phases, 
and  there  seemed  no  better  way  than  to  make  the 
pilgrimage  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  manner  of 
the  pioneer  canoeist  or  flat-boatman  himself.  The 
voyage  is  described  with  much  charm  and  humor, 
and  with  a  constant  realization  of  the  historical 
traditions  on  every  side. 

For  the  better  understanding  of  these  references 
the  author  has  added  a  brief  sketch  of  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Ohio  Valley. 

A  selected  list  of  journals  of  previous  travellers 
has  also  been  added. 

Uniform  ivith   "  Do^wn   Historic  IVaternvays^^  and  "  Hoim 

George  Rogers  Clark  Won  the  North-west ' ' 

i2mo.     300  pages,  $1.20  net 

A.  C.  McCLURG  ©■  CO.,  Publishers 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


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General  Library 
University  of  California 


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